How Hobbits achieved world domination

The Lord Of The Rings has captured imaginations all around the globe across the original novel, Hollywood blockbuster adaptations and a recent TV series.

Drawing on author JRR Tolkien’s knowledge of philology and folklore, and written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord Of The Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written and is credited with starting and influencing the high fantasy genre.

Published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien’s earlier book The Hobbit and is set in Middle-earth, a fictional world inhabited by various races including hobbits, dwarves, elves, wizards and humans.

The tale follows the journey of hobbit Frodo Baggins and his companions as they attempt to destroy the One Ring, a powerful artefact created by the Dark Lord Sauron that grants immense power to its bearer.

Director Peter Jackson adapted the novel into a series of three films, 2001’s The Fellowship Of The Ring, 2002’s The Two Towers and The Return Of The King the following year.

With a huge budget and an all-star cast including Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler, the films are among the highest-grossing of all time and won 17 Academy Awards out of 30 nominations.

More than 150 locations in New Zealand were used for filming, causing visitor numbers to grow by 40% in the early 2000s in a phenomenon labelled Tolkien Tourism.

More recently, the tales of Middle-earth preceding The Hobbit have been brought to life in Amazon Prime Video series The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. The most expensive TV series ever made, it debuted in September 2022 to mixed reviews. A second series is due in 2024.