"Tolkien's Worlds" is the first episode of Olivier Simonnet's documentary mini-series Looking for the Hobbit. It spans 25 minutes, and is followed by "The Magical Forest of Brocéliande".
Synopsis[]
Tolkien-artist John Howe tours the lingering film-sets of Hobbiton (mainly Bag End, which Howe helped design) and of the ruins of Dale, in New Zealand, and discusses his own artistic inspirations. Professor and Medieval specialist Leo Carruthers is introduced, far away at Oxford University in England, and talks about J.R.R. Tolkien's early interest in philology and old European languages, and Medieval literature. Carruthers then meets members of the Tolkien Society at a pub, and they briefly tour the location of Tolkien's old home at 22 Northmoor Road, North Oxford.
John Howe departs from the set of Dale, and goes to the Castle of Haut-Kœnigsbourg in the countryside of Alsace, France, which had been a seminal landmark in Howe's early love of art as a student.