Tolkien slept here

[wellinghall]

"Grassington, England - If it were not for the odd cow on the horizon, visitors to this remote part of northern England might feel marooned among the thousands of sheep. It is silent here too, apart from the almost indignant "baaing" of these fluffy wool donors. A latticework of drystone walls like silvery grey veins divides up the "dales," as the lush, green valleys of this upland landscape are known, and it is not hard to see why English author JRR Tolkien found inspiration hereabouts for his Lord of the Rings trilogy. A few elves and dwarfs or even a hobbit would not seem out of place."

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/204965,striding-out-among-the-sheep-in-the-tranquil-yorkshire-dales.html

!!!

Comments

[segh.livejournal.com]

Anyone who visits York tomorrow might see a flock of clergy in black robes and chimney-pot hats. I don't think they'd make you think of elves or hobbits, though the nervous might find them faintly sorcerous-looking.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Astonishingly lovely as Upper Wharfedale is, I would still be greatly surprised to see an elf or a hobbit. Far too many people and indeed lead mining.

[segh.livejournal.com]

Oh, and doesn't Tolkien always write "dwarves"?

[estiel.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Nothing about that place evokes Middle-Earth landscape or characters, but Tolkien is ubiquitous: I wrote a story about New Orleans that included a *real* district called Bywater and received a criticism that Tolkien was "out of place" there.

[lynn-maudlin.livejournal.com]

Ah, but one must appreciate the advert for "Sheep Ringtones" at the bottom of the page (or maybe I was just lucky--)