Thanks to Peter Jackson and his Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movie trilogies, everyone knows about the Middle Earth created by J.R.R. Tolkien. His books inspired many authors of fantasy, and he has an unfinished work called "The Story of Kullervo" to be released, which does not take place in Middle Earth. Also, some Indiegogo project wants to actually build a working real-life structure from Lord of the Rings with a crowdfunded Minas Tirith. Yes, Tolkien's influence lives on long after the author's passing.
J.R.R. Tolkien's Christian heritage can be seen in The Lord of the Rings, and CBN calls the influence "unconscious at first" but "conscious in the revisions". It is also said that Tolkien was responsible for bringing C.S. Lewis to his faith. Both of these authors wrote epic fantasy stories, but Lewis is also famous for his work as a Christian apologist.
Tolkien died in 1973, but there have been several works that have been published posthumously. Recently, an unpublished and unfinished novella known as "the Story of Kullervo" has appeared, and unlike other Tolkien works, it does not take place in the fictional setting of Middle Earth that Tolkien is most known for. Instead, it is inspired by the Kalevala epic of Finnish mythology, and CNET has even called it "fan-fiction".
This doesn't mean that it is bad. Tolkien began reimagining the myth in 1914 and completed three-quarters of the work. It is edited by a Tolkien scholar known as Vrlyn Flieger, and the book includes Tolkien's drafts along with notes and lectures and essays of the Kalevala myth.
The story is about Kullervo, who has supernatural powers, a twin sister, and a magical black dog. The main character lives with a dark magician named Untamo, who killed Kullervo's father and kidnapped his mother. It is apparently true to its source material.
In a story related to J.R.R. Tolkien, a recent crowdfunding project has appeared on Indiegogo called "Realise Minas Tirith". The purpose of this project is to raise £1.85 billion (around $2.9 billion) "in order to realize an exact replica of the city as portrayed in the novels", according to the Huffington Post.
Yes, that is a lot of money, but if you read The Lord of the Rings books or seen the films then you know how massive Minas Tirith was, a city/castle/stronghold/fortress built into the side of a mountain. This money will apparently secure the land, material and the labor to not only build the famous Middle Earth landmark, but maintain the city through the year 2053.
Those that are £100,000 donors will be "nobility" with such benefits like exclusive access to all parts of the city and horse-drawn carriages. The plan is to build this somewhere in England, and they have raised only £77,634 from over 2,005 contributors in just 16 days.
Yes, it is doubtful that the Indiegogo project will be realized, but it is a testimony to the living imagination of the late author J.R.R. Tolkien.
