Hobbit house at Hobbiton Movie Set, Matamata, New Zealand

Beyond the last page. Tolkien Week

Most landmarks were built by history. This one was built for a story. Hobbiton Movie Set sits in Matamata, New Zealand, on a working sheep farm that caught the eye of filmmakers scouting locations for 'The Lord of the Rings' in 1998. The hills already looked Shire-like; round doors, tidy gardens and curling chimneys completed the illusion. The set was later rebuilt for 'The Hobbit' films and became a destination for those eager to step into Middle-earth.

That feels especially fitting during Tolkien Week (20-26 September), the calendar week containing Hobbit Day on 22 September. What began as Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' shared birthday in JRR Tolkien's novels became a real-world excuse for feasts, costumes, readings and second breakfasts. First proclaimed by the American Tolkien Society in 1978, these celebrations honour a writer who did far more than tell stories: he created languages, legends, maps and songs so richly detailed that generations of readers have treated a fictional world as a place worth returning to.