Here are 30 Kickass and Interesting Facts About Lord of the Rings.
1-5 Interesting Facts About Lord of the Rings
1. J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of Lord of the Rings didn’t invent the Elvish languages to fit into the Lord of the Rings timeline, but wrote Lord of the Rings as a background history for the 15 different languages he created. – Source
2. An Elvish language (Sindarin) J.R.R. Tolkien used for The Lord of the Rings was entirely independent from any other language, and as of 2008 contained some 25000 words. – Source
3. The budget for the two “The Hobbit” movies is almost twice the budget of the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
4. Tolkien considered Sam Gamgee the “chief hero” of The Lord of the Rings. – Source
5. In the original 1937 edition of “The Hobbit,” Gollum willingly bet his ring in a game of riddles with Bilbo and the two parted on good terms when the ring went ‘missing’. Tolkien changed the story in his second edition to reflect the corruptive powers of the ring taking shape in, “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy. – Source
6-10 Interesting Facts About Lord of the Rings
6. While filming Lord of the Rings in the mountainous New Zealand, Sean Bean refused a helicopter ride to a set that was high in the mountains due to his fear of flying. He instead hiked up to the set in his full Boromir armor every day that they shot up there. – Source
7. In 1999, a Russian author, Kirill Eskov published a novel that retold The Lord of The Rings from Sauron’s Perpective. In his version, he depicted Mordor as a peaceful country and Gandalf and Aragorn as evil. – Source
8. Surprisingly, Tolkien’s son, Christopher Tolkien hates The Lord of the Rings movies – Source
9. Christopher Lee (Saruman) was the only person involved with the Lord of the Rings films to have actually met Tolkien – Source
10. The Lord of the Rings novels were written as if they were translated to English, and the original common tongue of the books is called Westron. – Source
11-15 Interesting Facts About Lord of the Rings
11. The Beatles once approached Stanley Kubrick with the idea of shooting Lord of the Rings movie that starred them. Kubrick told John Lennon, he felt the story was unfilmable. – Source
12. Instead of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien intended to write “A New Hobbit” about Bilbo who had spent all his riches from The Hobbit and wanted to go on another adventure. Tolkien remembered the powers of the ring from his first book and decided to write about that instead. – Source
13. Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) bonded with the two horses that he rode in Lord of the Rings, so he purchased them from their owner. – Source
14. “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” is the first and only fantasy film ever to win an Academy Award for “Best Picture”. – Source
15. Tolkien has often mentioned that War of the Rings takes place in the real world and that we are now currently in the Seventh Age. – Source
16-20 Interesting Facts About Lord of the Rings
16. An International Astronomical Union regulation states that all mountains on Titan must be named after the mountains from The Lord of the Rings. – Source
17. According to Elijah Wood, he created his Lord of the Rings’ Frodo audition tape in the woods with a homemade Hobbit costume. – Source
18. While filming “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that during a conversation, Peter Jackson referred to him as “Aragorn” for over half an hour without him even realizing it. – Source
19. JRR Tolkien’s estate only received $62,500 for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy until a lawsuit was filed. – Source
20. In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ (2003), they made a special effort to make sure that Sauron’s tower being destroyed did not resemble the World Trade Center attack. – Source
21-25 Interesting Facts About Lord of the Rings
21. Gandalf’s famous quote “You shall not pass” line in the book/movie is an allusion to a propaganda slogan predating to World War 1 – Source
22. Around 10,000 prosthetic facial appliances, over 3,500 pairs of Hobbit feet, 2 500 foam body suits, 1,200 suits of armour, 2,000 weapons and 10,000 arrows were made for the Lord of The Rings trilogy. – Source
23. Tolkien did not want the third Lord of the Rings book to be called ‘Return of the King’, as he felt it revealed too much about the story. This title was chosen by the publisher. – Source
24. The gravestone of J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife is inscribed with “Lúthien” and “Beren”. They were two tragic legendary characters in The Lord of the Rings, who were madly in love. – Source
25. Housing at University of California, Irvine is called Middle Earth and each hall is named after a region or town in LOTR – Source
26-30 Interesting Facts About Lord of the Rings
26. Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which cost him $300 million (he was offered 15% of the film’s profit). – Source
27. Frodo falls down exactly 39 times in The Lord of the Rings trilogy – Source
28. In the scene where Frodo is stabbed by Shelob’s stinger, Elijah Wood was actually stabbed with a prop one. – Source
29. It was Christopher Lee’s lifelong dream to play Gandalf in the LOTR movies. He auditioned for the role, but was given the part of Saruman instead because they thought he was too old to handle the fighting scenes. – Source
30. The length of time from when Frodo first gets the ring to when he actually sets out on his adventure is 17 years, not a few weeks like the movie makes it seem. – Source
The 7th fact is a bit oversimplified, I’ve read said book and it’s not that black and white. The author simply tells the same story in a more modern way (using modern concepts and less metaphors) and another perspective.
#24 – Luthien (daughter of elvish king Thingol and his Maia angelic wife Melian) and Beren are characters in LOTR prequel “The Silmarillion”. They are ancestors of both Aragorn and Arwen, although the two LOTR characters are not closely related as Arwen is more than 1000 years Aragorn’s senior.
8. Surprisingly, Tolkien’s son, Christopher Tolkien hates The Lord of the Rings movies
Yeah, not really surprising at all. Anyone who actually read and liked the books should hate those garbage movies. They might as well have spat in Tolkien’s face with everything they ruined in those movies.