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Simon Tolkien The grandson of JRR Tolkien said he felt ‘suffocated’ by the legacy of his famous relative and feared never being able to emerge from his shadow.

Barrister-turned-novelist Simon Tolkien said the unstoppable success of the film adaptations of his grandfather’s classic Lord of the Rings trilogy caused a bitter feud within his family.

Mr Tolkien said the problems led to an ‘incredibly, dreadfully painful’ feud with his father Christoper.

The 53-year-old author of The Stepmother and the Inspector Trave trilogy said ‘nothing could prepare’ his family for the release of the films, which he said was like being ‘hit by a juggernaut’.

He said the success of the films, which grossed almost $3 billion worldwide, made him feel as if he had ‘disappeared’.

He told The Sunday Times: ‘It was like being hit by a juggernaut. One minute, I was Simon Tolkien, a barrister from London. The next, I was JRR Tolkien’s grandson. This might sound strange, but I began to lose sight of who I was. It was as if I — me, Simon — had disappeared. I felt suffocated.’

It was reported at the time that the family row stemmed from Mr Tolkien’s willingness to cooperate with director Peter Jackson despite opposition from the rest of the estate. However this was later denied.

Mr Tolkien said: ‘Maybe some people assumed it was about money…I don’t know.

‘In hindsight, I think all of my anger was being driven by this feeling that I was trapped. All I ever was going to be was the grandson of a very famous writer. That was the sum total of my achievements.’

He and his father have since managed to reconcile their differences and he even dedicated his latest book to his father. He said: ‘I guess I feel lucky that I got the chance to put things right with my dad.

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A decade ago, Matamata was a sleepy country town in the middle of the North Island, well-placed for travellers in need of a comfort stop and a takeaway snack. Today, it is better known as Hobbiton and is one of the country’s star tourist destinations, attracting 1.9 million visitors over the last 10 years. It is poised for a fresh invasion starting this Christmas which seems certain to top that number over the next decade.

It all began in 1998 when movie director Peter Jackson took to the sky in a small plane in search sites to film his planned trilogy of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

His target was a piece of countryside untouched by concrete buildings, power poles and roads that he could transform into Hobbiton, the primitive village home of Tolkien’s small, hairy, Hobbit people.

A family farm outside Matamata, set about halfway between the provincial capital, Hamilton, and the tourist city of Rotorua, and complete with Tolkien’s so-called “party tree” and a lake, proved perfect. Continue reading “How a sleepy country town became Hobbiton”

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A team of academic researchers from the University of Waikato (New Zealand) and Ryerson University (Canada) is currently conducting a major international research project exploring audience engagement with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey prior to the film’s release. The survey will remain open until the TH: AUJ general release begins to roll out on December 12.

You can help them out by completing their anonymous survey! (They say it takes around 30 minutes, and I discovered that was fairly accurate estimate.) Continue reading “Your views sought on Hobbit research project!”

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