Today in history: death anniversary of Lord of the Rings creator

CAIRO - 2 September 2017: On September 2, 1973, the creator of the all-time bestselling novels the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, the brilliant author J.R.R Tolkien died.

Although in South Africa in 1892, Tolkien was primarily raised in England where he started his education. After studying at the University of Oxford, he served in WWI.

He then became an English language and literature professor at the University of Oxford. On a normal day, while Tolkien was grading an exam of one of his student, he felt a strong urge to write “In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit” on a sheet of paper. This sparked what went on to become one of the all-time bestselling fantasy novels. It was later published in 1937.

After Tolkien discovered the fantasy land of Middle Earth, he created a sequel that was published almost 20 years later. That sequel was the three volume book series the Lord of the Rings, all of which were published between 1954 and 1955.

The Lord of the Rings film adaptation became an award-winning blockbuster trilogy directed, co-produced and co-written by Peter Jackson. All three films, the Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring, the Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers, and the Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King had 30 Academy Award nominations and took home 17 awards.

The trilogy was nominated and won many other awards and went on to become one of the highest-grossing franchises in film history. The trilogy has played a significant role in shaping pop culture in the 20th and 21st centuries with a large audience of fans from all over the world.

The movies star Elijah Wood as Frodo, along with a many talented actors including Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett.