A crowdfunding effort called Project Northmoor has formed a fellowship of some fantastic people to aid its effort to save the Oxford home where The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien penned his fantasy epic. At the helm is author Julia Golding, and she’s enlisted Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins! Or, rather, actors Sir Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman, among others. Singer Annie Lennox, and actors John Rhys-Davies — who portrayed Gimli, son of Gloin, in the three Lord of the Rings films — and Sir Derek Jacobi have also shown their support for the quest to preserve the home in which such amazing tales were put to paper.
Project Northmoor aims to establish a literary center that would serve as the first in the world dedicated to Tolkien. The goal is to raise enough capital to purchase the home before it goes on the market. If the effort is successful, guests would be able to participate in “retreats, writing seminars and other cultural events” that would take place in the home where Tolkien also wrote The Hobbit.
“In 1930, a family moved into 20 Northmoor Road, a big house in the university city of Oxford, England,” Freeman said in a video on the campaign’s website.