Worcestershire is a county known for many things, be it for its magnificent cathedral, picturesque canal, or perhaps its famous china trade.
One thing it’s less famous for, however, is its bizarre role in inspiring JRR Tolkien’s mythical landscapes of Middle-earth.
As the host of the tails of “The Lord of the Rings”, Middle-earth represents the genius of the late Tolkien’s imagination, with a myriad of breathtaking terrains culminating in an imaginary world that fans of the books and movies have so often found themselves lost.
And while the barren and volcanic wasteland of Mordor bears little resemblance to the places Tolkien would have visited in Worcestershire, some of his inspiration for Middle-earth actually stems from his time in the county.
Tolkien was a frequent visitor with good friend CS Lewis in the 1930s, often arriving by early train from Oxford before spending the day exploring the mist-shrouded hills of The Malvern’s.
It is widely believed that such excursions gave birth to the Ered-Nimrais Mountain Range of Middle-earth or, as they are commonly known, the White Mountains.
The White Mountains, an eerie but breathtaking terrain, represent the border between Rohan and Gondor, two kingdoms of people who share a tumultuous relationship with each other as the stories progress.
Although Tolkien thought The Malvern was worth including in his stories about Middle-earth, film producer Peter Jackson didn’t.
Jackson, a New Zealand international, thought it best to use the wealth of landscapes in his homeland to direct the trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”.
And after Amazon raised the rights for a whopping $ 250 million to produce a spin-off series, it looked like it would stay there as the bosses again picked New Zealand as the chosen destination for the first series.
However, on Friday it was announced that Middle-earth would be moving to the UK for season two, relocating “The Lord of the Rings” for the first time from New Zealand.
Amazon said in a statement: “The move from New Zealand to the UK is in line with the studio’s strategy of expanding its production footprint and investing in studio space across the UK, with many of Amazon Studios’ tentpole series and films already destined for the UK Are home. ”
While it is currently unknown whether the show’s creators have determined specific locations for their filming, Worcestershire’s historic links to the original lands of Middle-earth could bring Tolkien’s vision of the White Mountains to The Malvern to life.