Tolkien house up for sale

New York

THE longtime home of author JRR 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 last week to raise at least US$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 worldwide Tolkien fan base is enormous, but there is no centre for Tolkien anywhere in the world," said Julia Golding, the British novelist who is spearheading the purchase. "There are centres 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 singer Annie Lennox, Shakespearean actor Sir Derek Jacobi, and 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.

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The residence had entered the market for the first time in more than two decades last year, for nearly US$6 million. The asking price was lowered to about US$5.3 million before the listing with Breckon & Breckon was withdrawn recently to give the group time to organise financing.

The current owners had bought the house for £1.6 million in 2004.

That same year it was designated a Grade 2 listed building, because Tolkien had lived there, meaning it was "of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve it." It may not have readily sold because of the government restrictions for alterations.

Many of the two-storey, six-bedroom home's original architectural elements remain, including the hardwood floors, high ceilings and wood-burning fireplaces. In the kitchen is an old bell system that was used to communicate with the rest of the house. NYTIMES