Council of Elrond

Sage only, only playable at a site where "Information" is playable, and only if a character in his company has a Gold Ring. Play to test a Gold Ring. No roll (or draw) is used. The player may replace the Gold Ring with any ring from his hand (except for The One Ring). Playable only during site phase. Tap the sage and the site.

Does this mean (since a Ring which has been tested may be replaced with either Minion or Hero Special Item Rings) that Ringlore will let me play Spirit Rings after having tested any of the Hero Rings?

Secrets of Their Forging wrote:Sage only. Playable on a sage during the site phase at a site where Information is playable if a character in his company has a gold ring item. Tap the sage and the site. You may replace the gold ring with a special item ring from your hand (except for The One Ring) for which the gold ring could normally be tested. Discard the gold ring item.

Secrets of Their Forging specifies a Special Item Ring for which the ring could normally be tested, but Ringlore seems to lack that restriction.

Then what means "Play to test a Gold Ring" in Ringlore's text?

Lidless Eye wrote:Testing a Gold Ring - Once you have a gold ring, you can "test" it to determine what kind of special ring it is. When you test a gold ring, you make a roll and add any applicable modification (due to the test card used and other cards). The gold ring card will indicate what special rings may be played based upon the modified roll.

Style of wording is similar to that used in A Chance Meeting:

"A character (even a Hobbit) may be brought into play..."

In METW Hobbits were only characters that could be brought into play only at its home sites. With introducing The Dragons and Fram Framson text of A Chance Meeting does not reflect precisely its desired functionality anymore.