Colchester's links to Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings books, penned by renowned author John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, better known as JRR Tolkien, are some of the most beloved fantasy novels around.

Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was published on July 29, 1954, and the Middle Earth-based epic adventure spawned numerous other books, a prequel novel, and more lore-expanding work.

The Lord of the Rings universe proved to be so successful many high-grossing films were made by director Peter Jackson and distributed by New Line Cinema.

Map - a close-up of Mordor on the Middle Earth map (Image: Alamy/PA)

What you may not know is that JRR Tolkien was somewhat influenced by Colchester Castle, the largest intact Norman Keep in Europe.

The author was a professor of Anglo-Saxon History at Oxford.

It is believed during the writing of his second novel, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, he based the towers on the tower of London and Colchester Castle.

The landmark took on the role of Barad Dúr, the ‘Dark Tower’.

Alongside this, JRR Tolkien named the grey heroic wizard, ‘Gandalf’, which is not far from ‘Gundolf’, the rea life architect of the two castles.

Location - an image of Colchester Castle in Castle Park

Whether it’s The Hobbit franchise which follows Bilbo Baggins or The Lord of the Rings books, which follows Frodo Baggins’s quest to destroy Sauron’s one ring, JRR Tolkien and his books are very famous.

So much in fact that in 2022 rare archival images of the author were sold in Colchester for almost £40,000.

Two of the images depict the author relaxing in his study and with his wife, Edith.

Renowned - one of the photographs of JRR Tolkien and inset images of photography negatives and a letter from the author

The whole collection, which was taken by photographer Pamela Chandler, even has an image of the author in his study with his hand-drawn map of Middle Earth.

After Ms Chandler died in 1993, her collection was passed on to her sister before being put up for auction at Reeman Dansie, which is based in Wyncolls Road in Severalls Business Park, Colchester.

The collection even included signed letters between the photography and the author.

64 colour and black and white negatives also sold for £18,000, with copyright, meaning the buyer will receive commission if they are published.

Daniel Wright, the associate director at Reeman Dansie Auctioneers and Valuers, said at the time: “The collection was quite impressive because it was so diverse and covered many different themes.

“A lot of the value was made up by the Tolkien material as he was such a private man items like this are scarce.”