Tolkien's hobbit home up for sale
The house in which JRR Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and much of The Lord of the Rings, 20 Northmoor Road, is now up for sale at a staggering price.
The acclaimed author's family are said to be "deeply attached" to the house, which was their home for seventeen years.
Tolkien, who was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University, bought the house in 1929 from Basil Blackwell, the famous bookseller.
By the end of the Second World War the house in North Oxford had become too large for the Tolkien family, who were forced to move to a smaller house in Manor Road.
The Maclagan family, friends of the Tolkiens, acquired the house's lease in 1952, buying it outright in the 1970s.
Described as "the most exciting room in the house" by his family, Tolkien's study was where he wrote his legendary tales of Middle Earth and read them aloud to his children.
The residence is suggested to have been inspirational for Tolkien's depiction of Bilbo Baggins' burrow, while Beorn's Hall is supposedly based on the home's large attic.
The death of Edith Maclagan, after more than fifty years of association with the house, has meant the home is once again for sale.
Mark Charter, the agent handling the sale, told The OxStu, "The provenance attached to Number 20 makes what is already a very desirable house an extremely exciting sale opportunity."
Should any Tolkien fans fancy this rather large piece of memorabilia, the six-bedroom house is on sale with Carter Jonas for £1.5 million.
27th May 2004