Photo: Project Northmoor

Gandalf Is Looking for a Fellowship to Buy J.R.R. Tolkien’s House

News Movies
by Eben Diskin Dec 4, 2020

Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, is promoting a crowdfunding campaign to purchase the home of LOTR author J.R.R. Tolkien in Oxford, England.

The campaign, called Project Northmoor, was created by author Julia Golding to preserve the house for future generations, and use it to create a center devoted to Tolkien. The project seeks to raise $6 million in three months for the home’s preservation.

The six-bedroom house was Tolkien’s home from 1930 until 1947 and is believed to be where he wrote much of The Hobbit and LOTR books.

Martin Freeman, who played Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit trilogy, and John Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli in LOTR, are also backing the venture. In a video posted on Twitter, Mckellen, Freeman, and other actors from the films backed the project.

“We cannot achieve this without the support of the worldwide community of Tolkien fans, our fellowship of funders,” McKellen said.

Golding acknowledged the challenge of raising the money, but struck an optimistic note. “We need only to look at Frodo and Sam’s journey from Rivendell to Mount Doom,” she said, “which took that same amount of time — and we are inspired that we can do this too.”

You can learn more about Project Northmoor and donate online.

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