My Life with Tolkien: From South Africa to the World

Abstract: This essay traces the influence of Tolkien’s writings on the author’s life and how he has shared his enthusiasm with others. In 1971 Rohan and friends left the Mordor of Johannesburg on a hippie quest for the bucolic bliss of the Shire in Swaziland. Later they bought an old sailing boat in England and set off across the ocean for the Undying Lands. They were only twenty miles from Bournemouth on the day that Tolkien died there in 1973. Rohan has played Gandalf in The Hobbit in the United States and directed a primary school production of The Lord of the Rings in South Africa. He has read and narrated and taught the novels to generations of youth.