The Gaunt Ring

• Type: Horcrux, Deathly Hallow (Resurrection Stone), Heirloom
• Owners: Cadmus Peverell and his descendants, the Gaunt Family (notably Marvolo Gaunt and Morfin Gaunt), Tom Marvolo Riddle (Lord Voldemort), Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter (the stone only)
• Maker: The Resurrection Stone was created by Death according to legend, or by Cadmus Peverell himself. The ring setting was of unknown make.

The Gaunt Ring is described as a heavy, rather clumsily made ring of what appeared to be gold. It is set with a heavy black stone, which is notable for having a crack running down its middle. Engraved upon the surface of this stone is a symbol that Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter would later identify as the sigil of the Deathly Hallows: a triangle containing a circle, bisected by a vertical line. Marvolo Gaunt incorrectly believed this symbol to be the Peverell coat of arms.

The ring possessed two distinct and powerful magical identities:

• The Resurrection Stone: As one of the three Deathly Hallows, the black stone was the legendary Resurrection Stone. According to The Tales of Beedle the Bard, turning the stone three times in one's hand would summon shades or echoes of the deceased. These shades were not truly alive but rather memories brought into a semi-physical form, appearing sad and cold, separated from the living by an invisible veil. Its original owner, Cadmus Peverell, was driven to suicide by the torment of being unable to truly reunite with his lost love. Harry Potter later used it to find the courage to face Voldemort, summoning the shades of James Potter, Lily Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin.
• Horcrux and Curse: Tom Marvolo Riddle transformed the ring into his second Horcrux, embedding a fragment of his soul within it through the murder of his father, Tom Riddle Sr.. To protect it, Lord Voldemort placed an extremely powerful and malevolent curse upon the ring. This curse was triggered when Albus Dumbledore, in a moment of weakness, put the ring on his finger. The curse immediately began to spread through his body, withering his hand and threatening to kill him. Severus Snape was able to contain the curse's effects to the hand, but could only delay Dumbledore's inevitable death by approximately a year.

The ring's history is ancient and significant, connecting two of the wizarding world's most powerful bloodlines. The Resurrection Stone was first given to Cadmus Peverell, the second of the three Peverell brothers. The stone, set in a ring, was passed down through his descendants. Over centuries, the Peverell line eventually merged with the line of Salazar Slytherin, resulting in the Gaunt Family. The ring became a treasured, if misunderstood, heirloom of the Gaunts, who were fanatically proud of their pure-blood heritage. By the 20th century, the ring belonged to Marvolo Gaunt. Upon his imprisonment in Azkaban, it passed to his son, Morfin Gaunt. In the summer of 1943, a sixteen-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle sought out his maternal relatives at the Gaunt Shack near Little Hangleton. After learning his family's history, he stunned Morfin, stole the ring, and proceeded to murder his Muggle father and grandparents. He magically altered Morfin's memory to make him confess to the crimes. Tom Riddle wore the ring at Hogwarts for a time. After confirming the nature of Horcruxes with Professor Slughorn, he used the patricide of Tom Riddle Sr. to turn the heirloom into a Horcrux. Years later, as Lord Voldemort, he hid the ring in the ruins of the Gaunt Shack, protecting it with numerous powerful enchantments in addition to its deadly curse. In the summer of 1996, Albus Dumbledore located and retrieved the ring. Realizing it was both a Horcrux and the Resurrection Stone, he was overcome by a desire to see his deceased sister, Ariana Dumbledore, and his parents. In his grief, he forgot it was a Horcrux and put it on, activating the curse. Though mortally wounded, Dumbledore managed to destroy the Horcrux element of the ring using the Sword of Gryffindor, which was imbued with basilisk venom. The cracked black stone, the Resurrection Stone, remained intact. Dumbledore later hid the stone inside the first Golden Snitch Harry Potter had ever caught, bequeathing it to him in his will. Harry solved the Snitch's riddle, “I open at the close”, and used the stone in the Forbidden Forest before sacrificing himself to Voldemort. He then dropped the stone, where it was presumably trampled into the forest floor by the hooves of centaurs, lost to the world.

The Gaunt Ring is a pivotal object in the series. It is the first Horcrux that is confirmed to be destroyed during the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and its retrieval provides the central mystery for much of the book. The curse on the ring directly leads to Albus Dumbledore's fatal weakness and sets in motion his planned death at the hands of Severus Snape. Furthermore, the ring serves as the primary link between the hunt for the Horcruxes and the legend of the Deathly Hallows, revealing that Voldemort and Harry Potter are distant relatives through their shared ancestry to the Peverell brothers. The Resurrection Stone inside it provides Harry with the final piece of emotional fortitude needed to complete his journey and face his destiny.

• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the black stone is depicted as cracking at the moment Dumbledore strikes it with the Sword of Gryffindor. In the novel, however, the stone is described as already having a crack in it when Harry first sees it in the Pensieve (“a heavy black stone with a crack down the middle”). The curse on the ring is also shown as a black, creeping rot that consumes Dumbledore's hand and arm. (film)