Visit the birthplace of 'The Lord of the Rings'

Around the corner from Exeter is the 17th-century Old Ashmolean Building. The imposing exterior is guarded by a row of stone busts resembling Socrates on steroids.

After graduating from Exeter and serving in World War I - before writing the books that made him famous - Tolkien worked behind the Ashmolean's fierce facade, composing word definitions for the New English Dictionary.

More than 50 years later, the dictionary staff asked for Tolkien's help with a new entry, one that his writings had added to the language. The word was "hobbit."

After a short stint at Leeds University, Tolkien became an Oxford professor, teaching Anglo-Saxon and English at Pembroke and Merton Colleges for 35 years.

Seven of Tolkien's former homes can be seen in and around Oxford, although none of them are open to the public. Tolkien hated the cramped, utterly plain row house on Manor Road, where he twice typed out the entire "Lord of the Rings" while sitting on a bed in the attic.

Tolkien saved his worst condemnation for the noise and stench of traffic near his Holywell Street cottage, calling it "Mordor in our midst." But Tolkien had happy memories of his days on Northmoor Road, where he lived in two homes for a total of 23 years. It was at 20 Northmoor Road where he first daydreamed of hobbits.

Northmoor Road lies in a quiet suburb north of central Oxford. I walked up Northmoor on a sunny March morning, trying not to look like a tourist.

Tolkien himself had no trouble moving between suburbia and Sauron. "I have brought Frodo nearly to the gates of Mordor. Afternoon lawn mowing," Tolkien casually wrote his son.

One of Tolkien's favorite escapes was Oxford's Botanic Garden, the oldest in Britain. The garden is directly opposite Magdalen College (pronounced, inexplicably to Americans, as "MAWD-lin"), where the Inklings often met in C.S. Lewis's rooms.

Tolkien's favorite tree is still there, an enormous Austrian pine two centuries old. While the branches of most trees grow outward in many directions, this tree looks like a many-armed giant, all of its thick limbs raised skyward in supplication. It is easy to imagine this tree inspiring Tolkien's Ents, the walking, talking tree-people of Middle-earth.

Tolkien became quite famous, both to his satisfaction and dismay. "Being a cult figure in one's own lifetime I am afraid is not at all pleasant," he wrote. "But even the nose of a very modest idol ... cannot remain entirely untickled by the sweet smell of incense!"

Tolkien was able to maintain a sense of humor, even while besieged by phone calls from fans. In response to a suggestion from an editor, he wrote: "Removing the number from the directory seems better than the method adopted by [C.S. Lewis's brother], which was to lift the receiver and say 'Oxford Sewage Disposal Unit' ... until they went away."

At the Eagle and Child, talk turned naturally to the hugely ambitious "Lord of the Rings" movie, which opens Dec. 19. "People are both looking forward to the movie and dreading it," says Shannon.

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