Impact of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings

The fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien have had a huge popular impact. His Middle-earth books have sold hundreds of millions of copies.^[1][2] The Lord of the Rings transformed the genre of fantasy writing.^[3] It and The Hobbit have spawned Peter Jackson's Middle-earth films, which have had billion-dollar takings at the box office.^[4][5] The books and films have stimulated enormous Tolkien fandom activity in meetings such as Tolkienmoot^[6] and on the Internet, with discussion groups, fan art, and many thousands of Tolkien fan fiction stories.^[7] The mythology's Orcs, Trolls, Dwarves, Elves, Wizards, and Halflings are firmly established in popular culture,^[8] such as in the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons,^[9] and in Middle-earth video games.^[10] Individual characters like Gollum, too, have become familiar popular figures,^[11] for instance featuring in a song by Led Zeppelin.^[12]