Janson Media Celebrates Hobbit Day With Release of 'The Real Middle Earth'

This is a special week for fans of the fantasy literature pioneer J.R.R Tolkien. The legendary writer responsible for classic high fantasy works like The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, is honored annually for Tolkien Week (September 17-23), while the birthday of two of his most beloved characters, Bilbo and Frodo, is celebrated on September 22nd, widely known as Hobbit Day. Since 1978, both celebrations have gained international recognition, observed in schools and libraries with fun activities, seminars, art shows and Lord of the Rings marathons!

The 'Middle Earth' land depicted in Lord of the Rings is an inspired one with its own language, landscapes, and journeys. Never has fiction felt so real. A world this inspired had to be born from Tolkien's real life influences and experiences. The foundation of Tolkien's work is explored in the Janson Media documentary The Real Middle World (1 x 60), released today to worldwide television, VOD, new media and non-theatrical markets.

It is Middle Earth itself — The Lord of the Rings" unforgettable setting — that remains Tolkien"s greatest achievement. This fascinating documentary takes us in Tolkien"s footsteps and investigates the landscapes and buildings, the places and names that helped shape Middle Earth.

Sir Ian Holm (Bilbo Baggins in The Fellowship of the Ring) narrates this fascinating exploration into an imaginary world that seems so real we pore over its maps and contemplate its journeys and its quests. Is this because the foundations of Tolkien"s imagined world were inspired by very real places? Was there a real shire in the English countryside that inspired the Shire of Middle Earth? What influences shaped the darker and more troubled lands beyond its borders? How did European languages fuse in Tolkien"s creative genius to create a vocabulary that evokes extraordinary places and heroic adventures?

The quest for The Real Middle Earth takes us to England"s west midlands, to Warwick and Oxford, to an ancient Lancashire school, to Saxon burial sites and many other places, including the real Dead Marshes, otherwise known as the Great War battlefields of the Somme.