Hello and welcome to this week’s: we have all been doing something slightly wrong our entire lives and were hitherto completely oblivious
You may or may not be aware of the upcoming J.R.R Tolkien biopic starring Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins, the one that will detail the early life of The Lord of the Rings author, but if you were planning on seeing it there is probably one thing you should know before you go strolling into the Odeon with a first edition copy of The Hobbit under your arm.
Other than the fact Tolkien’s estate has apparently distanced themselves from the movie. That’s also quite important. You should also know that, to be honest.
J.R.R Tolkien in 1916The other thing is that ‘Tolkien’ isn’t pronounced how you think it is. At least according to Lily Collins, who plays Edith Bratt in the film.
Appearing on This Morning, Collins told an apparently shocked Philip Schofield (who is a huge fan, according to Philip Schofield) and Holly Willoughby that the correct pronunciation is in fact ‘Tolkeen’ rather than the almost-universally used ‘Tolkin’.
Explaining to the two hosts, Collins admitted: “I think Nick [Nicholas Hoult] and I were both surprised and a lot of the times on set we found ourselves having to correcting ourselves.”
So there you have it. The next time you and your friends are discussing who is the best character in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy (Legolas or Aragorn, by the way, no other answers are acceptable) make sure you get this semi-interesting pronunciation fact in the conversation to really strengthen your argument.
