The 20th century’s most popular novelist? – the third of three articles. The year 2005 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s prose epic The Lord of the Rings: voted ‘the book of the century’ in a poll conducted in 1997 by the UK book retailer Waterstones and ‘the UK’s best loved book’ in a BBC survey carried out in 2003. TLOTR was adapted to the screen in 2001 by the New Zealand-based director Peter Jackson and released, to widespread acclaim, in three parts between 2001 and 2003. The present is the third of three linked discussions of Tolkien’s work and the media through which it has been channelled (text and film), and of why it has been so phenomenally popular.