Interesting Facts About The Lord of the Rings:

We’ve read the books and we’ve seen the films, but what are some interesting facts that you might not already know about The Lord of the Rings? Well here’s the top 25 facts we could find!

1. The role of Gandalf was offered to Sean Connery, but he didn’t understand the script after reading it and turned it down.
2. J.R.R. Tolkien used just two fingers to type a whopping 1,200 pages of text for the books.
3. The character Merry was named Marmaduke Brandybuck when Tolkien first wrote the books, but he later changed her name. What a relief!
4. The Beatles tried to make a film of Lord of the Rings starring themselves, but Tolkien wasn’t keen on the idea and it was put to a speedy end.
5. Christopher Lee had not met J.R.R. Tolkien until he bumped into him unexpected while having a drink in an Oxford bar.
6. Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen didn’t film any scenes together.
7. Around 18,000 costumes were made for the filming of all three Lord of the Rings films. In some cases, as many of 40 clones of the same costume needed to be made.
8. The two Hobbit films had a huge budget – twice as much as for all three LotR films.
9. Due to a phobia, Sean Bean would not get in a helicopter to fly to one of the New Zealand mountains used for filming. As a result, he had to climb up there every single time instead.
10. Christopher Tolkien, son of J.R.R. Tolkien, does not like the Lord of the Rings books written by his father.
11. Viggo Mortensen, the actor who played Aragorn, ended up buying two of the horses used in the films.
12. ‘The Return of the King‘ won an Academy Award in the ‘Best Picture’ category. This made it the first fantasy film to win this award.
13. More than 2,000 weapons and 10,000 arrows were created for the filming of the LotR trilogy.
14. Viggo Mortensen learnt how to speak Elvish for the purpose of the films. He also speaks five other languages, including Danish and Italian.
15. Christopher Lee was successful in getting the role of Saruman, but his real ambition was to play Gandalf. The producers thought his age would interfere with the fighting scenes.
16. Peter Jackson, the director of the trilogy, had a cameo role in each of the three films. His children also had cameo appearances.
17. Cast members from ‘The Fellowship of the Ring‘, including Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen, had the number nine in Elvish tattooed onto them after filming had ended.
18. Christopher Lee had read the Lord of the Rings books every year for more than 40 years before he was cast as Saruman.
19. Ian McKellen kept some items from his time playing Gandalf, including the staff, sword and wizard’s hat.
20. Sean Astin and Orlando Bloom were just two of the actors who sustained injuries while on set, and Viggo Mortensen broke two of his toes!
21. Cate Blanchett loved her costume while playing Galadriel, and when filming had finished, the prosthetic elf ears were given to her as a gift.
22. It takes Frodo 17 years to start his adventure. Although it doesn’t seem like that in the films, it is years after finding the ring that he actually sets out on his venture.
23. Legolas is known for his white-blond hair in the films, but the books don’t actually specify his hair colour.
24. While Tolkien admitted that the books can be seen as being a reference to historical events, he did not intend them to be allegorical.
25. ‘The Return of the King‘ broke the record for the film with the highest amount of people featured in it.