This house on Northmoor Road in Oxford is where J.R.R. Tolkien lived from 1930 to 1947. In those years, he wrote “The Hobbit” and most of “The Lord of the Rings,” his two most famous works.
Now the property is being sold, and Julia Golding, an author herself, has launched Project Northmoor, a campaign to buy the house and transform it into a self-sustaining literary center to honor Tolkien's legacy.
JULIA GOLDING
Project Northmoor
“The initial possibility that I thought of was to inspire new creativity. So writing, screenwriting, filmmaking, illustrating, all those things that accompany Tolkien.”
Besides offering courses, Golding hopes for the opportunity to give visitors a deeper understanding of Tolkien as part of an influential literary circle known as the Inklings, who often met in this very house.
JULIA GOLDING
Project Northmoor
“The Inklings themselves held together these people from all different sorts of faith backgrounds and different emphasis on the way they believed, and that was part of their creativity. They brought that diversity together.”
Tolkien's creativity, for instance, was largely fueled, both consciously and unconsciously, by his Roman Catholic faith.
JULIA GOLDING
Project Northmoor
“The messages in his work, which are deeply deeply founded in his own Christian values, are also values that many people would admire and be inspired by, such as sacrificing yourself for your friends, the fact that it's very difficult to overcome human evil—hobbit evil, in Frodo's case—but you need help at the end to defeat yourself.”
The goal is to raise six million dollars by March 2021 to be able to purchase the house. Supporters of the crowdfunding campaign include none other than Sir Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman and John Rhys-Davies, who starred in the film adaptations of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.”
https://www.projectnorthmoor.org/
CT
