{"id":566,"date":"2019-04-17T14:14:06","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T13:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/?p=566"},"modified":"2019-04-17T14:14:10","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T13:14:10","slug":"jrr-tolkiens-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/jrr-tolkiens-wales\/","title":{"rendered":"JRR Tolkien’s Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

10 places to explore Tolkien’s Wales<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The academic and writer JRR Tolkien (1892 \u2013 1973) loved our language, describing Welsh as \u2018\u2026the senior language of the men of Britain.\u2019 He gave Welsh-inspired names to many characters and places in The Lord of the Rings<\/em> and The Hobbit<\/em>. To relive the magic of his books, visit these 10 places with a connection to Tolkien\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Llanbedrog, Ll\u0177n Peninsula<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a boy Tolkien lived near a railway station in Birmingham, where Welsh words appeared magically into his life. He later said, \u2018I heard it coming out of the west, it struck me in the names on coal trucks and drawing nearer it flickered past on station-signs, a flash of strange spelling and a hint of a language old and yet alive. It pierced my linguistic heart.\u2019 His fascination with Welsh continued on a family holiday to Llanbedrog<\/a> on the Ll\u0177n Peninsula<\/a> in 1920. He later used Welsh in his novels as the foundation of one of the Elvish languages, Sindarin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brightly<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beach huts at sunrise, Llanbedrog, Llyn Peninsula, GwyneddView Credits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brecon Beacons National Park<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s thought (but not proved) Tolkien stayed in the appealing village of Talybont-on-Usk<\/a> in the 1940s, while working on parts of The Lord of The Rings<\/em>. Writing at a time when industrialisation was transforming the British countryside, his nostalgic depiction of The Shire was inspired by rural Wales. It\u2019s easy to see similarities between the landscapes in his books and the hills and meadows of the Black Mountains. He named the Hobbit settlement of Crickhollow after nearby Crickhowell<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Llyn y Fan Fach, Brecon Beacons National ParkView Credits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buckland Hall, near Llangynidr<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, Buckland was a colony of Hobbits between the Old Forest and the Brandywine River,<\/em> the childhood home of Frodo Baggins. Tolkien is thought to have based this part of Middle-earth on the Buckland Estate, whose ancient, protected woodlands stand beside the River Usk. Buckland Hall<\/a>, a large mansion surrounded by parkland and specimen trees, is now a venue for conferences, courses and celebrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hobbit houses, Pembrokeshire<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Four grass-roofed Hobbit houses<\/a> are among the glamping options at Florence Springs, a quietly beautiful settlement in the heart of Pembrokeshire. They\u2019ve all got private wood-burner hot tubs, and they\u2019re close to the beautiful beaches of Tenby<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lammas Ecovillage, Pembrokeshire<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a Hobbit-house atmosphere to the homes at Lammas<\/a>, an ecovillage created by a group of people committed to low-impact living. Their idea is to pioneer an alternative model for living on the land. Residents offer 90-minute guided tours of the village at 11am every Saturday from May to September, and courses in traditional crafts are held on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nant Gwrtheyrn, Ll\u0177n Peninsula<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tolkien felt the study of Welsh was crucial to his understanding of the history of the British Isles, saying, \u2018Welsh is of this soil, this island, the senior language of the men of Britain; Welsh is beautiful.\u2019 If you are equally fascinated by Celtic culture and the Welsh language, head for Nant Gwrtheyrn<\/a>, a peaceful language and heritage centre in a former quarrymen\u2019s village on the north coast of the Ll\u0177n Peninsula<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can drop in for the day to enjoy heritage exhibits and a caf\u00e9 with sparkling sea views, or join a residential course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stone<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nant Gwrtheyrn, Ll\u0177n Peninsula, North WalesView Credits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An academic by profession, Tolkien would have felt thoroughly at home in this sumptuous residential library. Gladstone’s Library<\/a> holds 32,000 books from Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone\u2019s private collection, many of them hand-annotated, just as Tolkien annotated his own volumes. \u2018Learn Welsh in a Week\u2019 is among the many language and literary courses held here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Narberth Museum, Narberth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tolkien studied the Mabinogion<\/em>, a collection of Celtic myths and Arthurian legends from medieval Welsh manuscripts, and wove some of their themes into his works. In fact, he claimed that The Lord of the Rings<\/em> was his own translation of the mythical \u2018Red Book of Westmarch\u2019 \u2013 based on the real-life Red Book of Hergest, one of the oldest and most important Welsh manuscripts. You can introduce your kids to the best-known tales at Narberth Museum’s<\/a> Mabinogion Woodland Glade, a play area with space for story-telling, puzzles and dressing up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The mind-bogglingly large collection of books at our National Library<\/a>, adjacent to Aberystwyth’s<\/a> prestigious university, includes rare Welsh manuscripts. Among them is another important source of Mabinogion stories, the White Book of Rhydderch<\/em>, which dates back to the mid-14th century. It\u2019s one of the most notable manuscripts in Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"National<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Mid WalesView Credits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dolaucothi Gold Mines, Carmarthenshire<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If the scenes of Smaug<\/em> the dragon with his enormous hoard of gold in The Hobbit<\/em> made you curious about how Welsh gold was mined, you\u2019ll be gripped by the underground guided tour of Dolaucothi<\/a>. Gold was extracted here from Roman times until 1938, the year after the book was published. After your visit, treat yourself to a pint of Evan Evans, a local Carmarthenshire brew, in the nearby Dolaucothi Arms<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 places to explore Tolkien’s Wales The academic and writer JRR Tolkien (1892 \u2013 1973) loved our language, describing Welsh as \u2018\u2026the senior language of the men of Britain.\u2019 He gave Welsh-inspired names to many characters and places in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. To relive the magic of his books, visit these 10 places […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":567,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toursofwales.co.uk\/wandering-bard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}