The concept of “brat summer” is ostensibly coming to an end, but that’s just as well for fans of the fall. Autumn is an ideal time for lovers of cozy fantasy, and even for fantasy stories that skew a bit darker. Take J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and its fantastic film adaptations by Peter Jackson, which gave us the personification of lush, cozy autumn in its depictions of Rivendell and the Shire. Both realms serve as sanctuaries for Frodo Baggins, offering him respite on his quest to destroy the One Ring, along with an ideal to keep fighting for. But their appeal is also pretty simple for Tolkien fans: not unlike the Harry Potter lovers who dream of walking the streets of Hogsmeade, butterbeer in hand, the average LOTR enjoyer has fantasized about visiting Hobbiton or Rivendell at least once.
Autumn would be the ideal time to visit the latter if it did exist, as Frodo first travels to Rivendell in late October. When the young Hobbit is rescued from a Nazgûl attack in The Fellowship of the Ring, he awakens in the realm after a four-day slumber. The wizard Gandalf explains that he’s “in the House of Elrond, and it is ten o’clock in the morning ... the morning of October the 24th, if you want to know.”
