Why the Surge in Middle-earth Content Could Cost Us Tolkien Himself

What if all this Middle-earth content, more of it than we have ever had, is actually the worst thing that could happen to Tolkien himself? I have spent a long time making videos about Tolkien and Middle-earth. I have stood at Sarehole Mill, the actual place that inspired the Shire, and right now I am partway through building an 8,278-piece LEGO version of Minas Tirith. More Middle-earth doesn't automatically mean more Tolkien. The two can quietly pull apart from each other as the next wave of films, games and shows lands.

I want to show the ideas Tolkien actually cared about, why they are a lot harder to sell than a trailer full of battle tools, and why that matters if you actually want new fans finding the man behind all of it, not just the merchandise.

Building an 8,278 Piece LEGO Minas Tirith While I Think This Through

The set is split across three boxes, and I'm still working through the smallest one, which has 18 bags on its own. Across the whole build there are 60 bags in total. In the previous session I built just bag one, the entrance and main gate columns of the city, along with tiny green micro pieces for the doors that I think match the films closely at this scale. This time I'm working through bag ten.

The market area near the gate might be my favorite section so far. It's full of small details nobody would notice at a glance: lettuce, cherries, carrots, fish in a basket, a hay bale, a lantern, a water feature, and a tiny chicken. None of these details are necessary to build Minas Tirith, but they make it feel lived in, and I think that's exactly what Tolkien did with his own world.

Modern Fantasy Went Bigger, But That's Not What Makes Middle-earth Special

If someone asked me my favorite fantasy world, I'd say Middle-earth without questioning it, even though plenty of people would jump to something like The Witcher or Elder Scrolls. Modern fantasy has gone bigger: bigger maps, darker stories, bigger wars, more magic systems, whether that's The Witcher or House of the Dragon. I think that's what defines fantasy as a genre right now, but that's not what makes Middle-earth what it is.

Middle-earth doesn't feel built specifically to entertain you. It feels like somewhere that would carry on existing even if nobody was reading about it. Every ruined watchtower feels like somebody once stood guard there. Tolkien was an Oxford academic whose life revolved around language, Norse mythology, Finnish myths, Celtic myths, British legends and Greek mythology, and he spotted that myths which survive that long feel real because they carry layers underneath them, the way Greek mythology or Arthurian legend drops you into the middle of a world that already feels ancient.

So when Tolkien created Middle-earth, he didn't just write a plot. He built the geography, then the history, then kingdoms, bloodlines, calendars, languages and the stories people inside that world would tell each other. He had a word for it: subcreation, the idea of building a secondary world so internally consistent it feels like it should carry on existing whether anyone is looking at it or not. Names like Eärendil, Lúthien or Gondolin aren't names he thought sounded interesting; entire stories, lives and tragedies are attached to them, and you're only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

The 'Too Many Characters' Criticism Is Lazy, and Every Character Is an Entry Point

One criticism I hear all the time is that Tolkien has too many characters. I think that criticism is lazy. Compare Frodo with Pippin, Aragorn with Denethor, or Boromir with Faramir. They're completely different people, and he gave as much thought to the people as he did to the maps and languages.

I think the reason there are so many characters isn't because he couldn't edit himself. It's because somewhere in that enormous cast there's probably someone who feels like you: maybe Gimli's stubbornness, maybe Bilbo making jokes, maybe Eowyn desperately wanting to matter in the world, or Lúthien refusing to give up on the person she loves, which is so connected to Tolkien's own personal life. I think that's one of the reasons people stay obsessed with Tolkien for decades, not because Middle-earth is massive, but because somewhere inside it they found themselves.

Standing at Sarehole Mill and Puzzlewood Changed How I See Ordinary Places

These days it's less about the mythology for me and more about how the stories make me feel. Standing at Sarehole Mill during a festival run by the Tolkien Society, knowing that's where Tolkien stood as a boy, hit different than anything I'd read online. Middle-earth wasn't born from impossible castles or dramatic battles. It grew out of ordinary countryside, from a boy who happened to feel safe there.

I had a similar feeling at Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean, with tree roots wrapping around rocks, tiny winding paths disappearing into the woods, sunlight through the branches, moss everywhere. Walking through it makes you slow down, and I understood how someone like Tolkien could walk through somewhere like that and think there could be an ancient kingdom down there. Once you've been to places like that, a tree isn't just a tree anymore; it's survived generations of forgotten stories we'll never know. Tolkien's real gift is that his books are escapism, but they also teach you to notice the ordinary world you're living in.

Boromir's Redemption and Sam's Line Matter More to Me Now Than the Battles

The moments that stay with me on a grander scale now aren't the battles but the quieter parts: Sam refusing to leave Frodo, Aragorn choosing humility over power, Gandalf showing mercy when it would be easier to condemn someone, the fellowship sitting together in Rivendell before the journey begins.

Boromir has always been one of my favorite characters, and I think pop culture has done him a bit dirty by reducing him to the one who tried to take the ring. He failed, but almost immediately he knew he'd failed, and he spends what little life he has left trying to put it right, dying to protect Merry and Pippin. Good people aren't people who never fail; they're people who keep choosing to do the right thing after they've failed. And then there's Sam's line, "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you," which I genuinely think is one of the greatest lines ever written. At some point in life you're going to be a Frodo, and at some point you're also going to be a Sam. The story was never about destroying the ring; the real goal was preserving the Shire and protecting ordinary people and ordinary lives.

Why I'm Worried We'll Keep Middle-earth But Lose Tolkien Himself

Over the next few years we're going to get more Middle-earth than we've possibly had for a very long time, with more films, more TV, more games. Honestly, I think that's great, and so many people who have never picked up a Tolkien book are going to discover his world for the first time. I'm not worried that we're going to lose Middle-earth. I am worried that we're going to keep Middle-earth but lose Tolkien.

As Middle-earth becomes more of a franchise, and I don't mean that as a criticism, I do wonder whether Tolkien himself will slowly become more of a footnote, whether people associate Middle-earth with whichever series, film or game introduced them to it rather than the man who imagined it. Tolkien wasn't trying to build the next cinematic universe. He was trying to build a mythology for England, inspired by the languages he loved, the medieval stories he studied, his friendships, his faith, the grief he carried, and the countryside he watched become industrialized. The elves, the Balrogs, the battles and the rings were the vehicle, never the destination.

Those underlying ideas aren't easy to market. His greatest heroes usually aren't the strongest people in the room; they're gardeners and reluctant prophets, ordinary people who keep putting one foot in front of the other because nobody else can. Victory comes through mercy rather than violence, through restraint rather than domination. It's easy to make a trailer about a Balrog. It's much harder to make a trailer about why Sam might be the most important person in the entire story.

Tolkien Could Become a Famous Author Almost Nobody Has Actually Read

I looked briefly at some statistics before making this point, and from what I saw, something like half of UK adults struggle to concentrate for long periods, and something like 40 percent of UK adults don't read at all, with the average person reading around two books a year. That hasn't made me think people have stopped caring about stories, because they clearly haven't; it's why something like House of the Dragon or A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is so loved. I think it's more that the world is constantly asking for our attention, and sitting down with a book for even ten or twenty minutes isn't easy anymore.

Because of that, I think Tolkien could become one of the most famous authors people have never actually read. People will know who Gandalf is, they'll know who Aragorn is, they'll quote "You shall not pass," but they may never experience Tolkien's own words. That's sad, and it's not because the adaptations are bad. I love the films, I'll play the games, I'm just as excited for the new Middle-earth projects as anyone. I just don't want the source to disappear behind everything it's inspired.

I'd Rather Be a Bridge Into the Books Than a Replacement for Them

My answer has never been to tell anyone to just go read the books, because that's not helpful advice. I've spoken to people in my community who are fascinated by Middle-earth but have never convinced themselves to sit down and read it, or who say it's too intimidating or too time-consuming. I only have to mention The Silmarillion and people react like it's impossible, and I understand that, because The Silmarillion really is intense.

I would much rather be the bridge than the replacement. If one video gives somebody the confidence to pick up The Hobbit, or persuades someone to give The Silmarillion one more go, that's a win. I don't want an audience that watches me explain Tolkien forever; I want an audience that eventually doesn't need me anymore.

We're getting Rings of Power, The Hunt for Gollum, and new video games, and if you'd told me ten years ago we'd be getting this much Tolkien content, I would have thought you were winding me up. For me it isn't really about whether any particular film, game or series is good or bad. It's about making sure that underneath it all we don't lose sight of the man who imagined it in the first place. I genuinely hope I'm wrong to be worried. I hope these new films, games and shows introduce loads of people to this world and become the beginning of someone's journey into Tolkien, not the end of it.

So which are you: more of a Frodo, or more of a Sam?