The Legacy of the Lord of the Rings in Auvergne

The crag, the precipice, the perilous pass, the castle-crowned hill, the arched bridge, the untutored mountaineer, the ravaging baron, the robber chief, the ugly legendary tale of death, the pretty tale of love and fairyland luck — all these come into the story of Auvergne.

-George Morgan

The Hobbit by British author J.R.R. Tolkien has inspired generations of readers and artists alike. But it was Peter Jackson who reshaped the public’s view of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series by setting his film adaption of the books in New Zealand. The wild, sweeping landscapes stunned audiences; in essence, Jackson’s films transformed the country’s tourism industry. For the most part, it’s impossible to read anything about Middle-Earth without thinking of New Zealand’s majestic countryside.

Over the last few years, however, one super fan named Léo Pons has created his own adaptions of the books, choosing to set them in the mountains of Cantal. In many ways the films perfectly encapsulate the sublime spirit of the region, which has inspired the poets of Auvergne since the Middle Ages. Naturally Pons’s work did not go unnoticed; he has received wide international acclaim, not just from fans, but also from Frodo himself, actor Elijah Wood.

Watch the below video to see what Wood thought of the Lord of the Rings in Auvergne:

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