Cheddar Gorge, Somerset County, England, is a known influence on J.R.R. Tolkien’s detailed inclusion of caves in The Lord of the Rings (1955). Most direct is Tolkien’s own explanation of two trips to Cheddar Gorge (1916 and 1940) as the inspiration for the fictional Glittering Caves of Aglarond. This connection is representative of the many geological details in his novels, which have long been analyzed in Tolkien scholarship. Given Tolkien’s interdisciplinary approach to fictional world-building (drawing upon scientific, philological, and mythological elements), a multidisciplinary approach to analyzing his sources of inspiration is clearly warranted.

While Tolkien’s prequel to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit (begun as a series of bedtime stories told by Tolkien to his children in the late 1920s), is sometimes dismissed as a mere children’s tale, it, too, contains clearly demonstrated references to the natural world, including cycles of the moon, as well as Tolkien’s experiences hiking in the Swiss Alps in 1911. One central scene in The Hobbit – in which the hobbit Bilbo Baggins finds a magical ring, the most precious possession of the creature Gollum – takes place in a large subterranean cavern featuring a small island set within a body of water and reachable by boat. While this fictional location bears little resemblance to the caves of Cheddar Gorge, it closely parallels a series of caverns that were opened up as public show caves in 1927, those of Wookey Hole, located seven miles by road from Cheddar Gorge. Now designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Wookey Hole was already well-known in the 1920s for its unique geology (mostly composed of Triassic Dolomitic Conglomerate rather than Carboniferous Limestone), ancient human artifacts, and persistent legends of mysterious occupants, including an infamous witch. This poster draws upon popular media of the early 20^th century – including newspaper and illustrated magazine articles describing the 1927 public opening – to argue for Wookey Hole as a likely model for Gollum’s cavern.