Literary fans and celebrities who starred in Tolkien films start a crowdfunding campaign to preserve the house.
The longtime home of the author J.R.R. Tolkien is about to re-enter the market, and a crowdfunding campaign has been started with hopes that “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” fans will support an initiative to purchase, restore and turn the property into a Tolkien museum. Project Northmoor, as the group effort is called, began a three-month campaign on Wednesday to raise at least $5.3 million to buy the house at 20 Northmoor Road on the outskirts of Oxford, England. It was there that Tolkien lived with his wife, Edith, and their four children, from 1930 to 1947, and wrote “The Hobbit” and much of the “Lord of the Rings” fantasy trilogy. The nonprofit group wants to set up a literary center at the house devoted to Tolkien studies. “The worldwide Tolkien fan base is enormous, but there is no center for Tolkien anywhere in the world,” said Julia Golding, the British novelist who is spearheading the purchase. “There are centers for Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, and, arguably, Tolkien is just as influential as they are.” Backing the initiative are numerous celebrities who helped create a video, including the singer Annie Lennox, the Shakespearean actor Sir Derek Jacobi, and the actors Ian McKellen, John Rhys-Davies and Martin Freeman, who appeared in Tolkien films — McKellen as Gandalf, Rhys-Davies as Gimli and Freeman as Bilbo Baggins.
