h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Lord of the Rings: Downs, Barrows and Wights - A87877174
Author: Gnomon - U151503

Bluebottle asked me to write this - I suspect because it has the word "Wight" in it.

I'm going to away on holidays for the next two weeks so I may not look at any comments until I get back.

As if I'd want someone else to write an entry with the word 'Wight' in it!

I'd love to have evidence that Tolkein came to the Isle of Wight. Had he visited at least one of the 240-300 barrows on the Isle of Wight (almost all of which are found on chalk downs) it would be reasonable to suppose it may have inspired the name 'Barrow-Wight'.

A few websites that mention these are:
http://www.visitisleofwight.co.uk/things-to-do/round-barrows-p1069441
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=4739 <- Look at the map to see a few of them.
http://www.invectis.co.uk/iow/archae.htm

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This is very educational - I didn't know Watership Down was a place! I also like the descriptions of the features and how they relate to Tolkien's world

Sometimes Men is capitalised and sometimes not.

Very atmospheric ending

I think Watership Down is still a place at the moment, but not necessarily for much longer – they keep wanting to bulldoze it and turn it into a housing development/bypass that is 'in keeping with the local community'.

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I'm surprised at that BB because it is still a very rural area.

Thanks Sasha. Capitalisation is always a problem with Tolkien because he liked to capitalise Men when referring to the race but wasn't completely consistent. I'll think about this - I could probably get away with making them all lower-case.

I've changed all the "Men" to lowercase, and it looks OK.

Apparently it is the area of Sandleford that is being developed – which is where the rabbits are at the start of the book – rather than their destination of Watership Down.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-17028538

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So they're going to build houses on the land that in the book the rabbits had to leave because houses were being built on it!

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