Alberobello – Hobbiton on the Mediterranean

One glance at the Italian village of Alberobello and you know that you have stumbled across something unique.

Neat rows of whitewashed dwellings like something out of a fairy-tale.

It is almost as if the Hobbits of Middle-earth had set up a Mediterranean colony.

Image Credit Flickr User Loriszec

Image Credit Flickr User Cinzia A Rizzo

These strange but charming dwellings are known as trulli.  They are built without using mortar, part of a drywall culture of construction which predates written history in this part of Italy.  Many of the trulli pictured here are around six hundred years ago – the large slabs of limestone from which they are built was gathered from fields in the area.

Houses of the Hobbit Diaspora

If you think that Hobbits are fictional, do not be fooled a second longer.  Middle-earth once existed, as did all of its various species.  Yet the hobbits found themselves obliged to leave their original home of The Shire. Rescued by the ancestors of a mild-mannered English writer, they have spread across the world.  A spell cast by the Gandalf the White means that the sons of men cannot see them but if you look close enough, there is evidence to be found.  A hobbit has to live somewhere, after all.  Here are just some of the houses of the Hobbit diaspora.

Image Credit Flickr User Sarah Stierch

Image Credit Flickr User Murray Barnes

The first evidence of hobbits goes back hundreds of years.  Sites in Scotland and Finland, to name but two, have shown that hobbits have been living among us for longer than anyone imagined.  In exchange for our hospitality, the Hobbits have sworn to help us thrive.  While you might argue that, globally, they cannot be doing too good a job of that, there are few hobbits to many millions of humans - so the scale of their assistance is not huge.

Hobbiton Reborn!

Just over a year ago Kuriositas reported on the state of the set of Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand. The news wasn't good.

After the filming of the Lord of the Rings, the owners of the farm upon which Hobbiton was created asked if some of the hobbit homes could remain to serve as an additional tourist attraction to the area. And they made it so, but soon things were being taken over by the sheep! Yet there is now good news from The Shire - what a difference a year can make!

Thanks to Sir Peter Jackson and his crew returning to Matamata to film the ‘prequel’, the set has been rebuilt – and how!  Sir Peter Jackson’s company and the farm have entered into a joint venture arrangement to allow movie fans to visit the newly reconstructed film set of The Hobbit. Sir Peter was recently pictured with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key (below) on the set which is now open again to the public - but with the set properly retained this time!

Image Credit Flickr User NZNationalParty

Image Credit Flickr User richhawk57

If you want to see how the set looked before Sir Peter’s return, please click here. However, below is a selection of pictures from the set which you are now able to visit, should you be (handily enough) in New Zealand any time soon! It seems odd, in a way, being able to visit the set of a movie which is yet to be released…

Occupy Mordor!

Image Credit Flickr User Jamison Weiser

Has Gollum Finally Found Happiness?

Image Credit Flickr User Gruntzooki

In something of a shock to communities everywhere, not to mention fellowships, everyone's favorite wizened Stoor Hobbit seems, at last, to have found happiness.  No date has yet been set and it is not known under which name the Hobbit formerly known as Sméagol will marry.  Attempts to foil the paparazzi have seemingly failed and it seems that the wedding will be the usual media circus.

Yes, OK.  Not a real newspaper headline but a parody, spotted yesterday in London's Hackney.