Today in History: ‘Lord of the Rings’ author Tolkien remembered

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

Although born 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 World War I.

He then became an English language and literature professor at the University of Oxford. On a normal day, Tolkien was grading his students’ papers when he felt a strong urge to write, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” across a sheet of paper. This sparked what went on to be one of the 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’ which were all published in 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 so many other awards and later on became “one of the highest-grossing franchises in film history.” ‘Lord of the Rings’ has played a significant role in shaping pop culture in the 20th and 21st century with a large audience of fans from all over the world.

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