Hobbit Houses: Dwellings Right at Home in Tolkien's Middle Earth

While you have to go to the theater to see "The Hobbit," some people experience J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth every day. The books that inspired the new movie and the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy have also inspired home design for years. Among the most recent dwellings is one built for a diehard Tolkien fan in Chester County, Pa.: a 600-square-foot guesthouse with a cartoonishly curved roof and a 54-inch circular cedar door.

Inside are wood arches, a "butterfly window," a stucco fireplace -- and walls of shelves where its owner displays a vast collection of Tolkien memorabilia acquired over 30 years. The whimsical home was built with stones from a collapsed 18th-century wall in the owner's yard.

"This isn't something that you can re-create on a suburban cul-de-sac," Peter Archer, the architect behind the fantastical house, told The Associated Press. "It was made for this specific location, and it wouldn't work anywhere else."

This hobbit's dream joins several similar homes that we've featured before. See more of it and some other variations on this theme below.

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See also:
Ohio Dentist John Learner's Gingerbread Houses Will Give You a Toothache
The Narrowest 'House' in the World Is Unveiled
Artist Makes Luxury Home in a Dumpster

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