May they outlast the Sarumans and see spring again in the trees. Yet, my gentlehobbits, I give you this toast: To the Hobbits. We Hobbits have against them no magic weapons. I look East, West, North, South, and I do not see Sauron but I see that Saruman has many descendants.

It is now exactly 20 years since I began in earnest to complete the history of our renowned hobbit-ancestors of the Third Age. In fact, in a speech he delivered at 'Hobbit Dinner' held in the Netherlands in 1958, Tolkien spoke fondly of the characters he created. While his novels are full of descriptions of mythical lands and epic battles, the narrative is primarily concerned with the tiny hobbits navigating them. If you look at the words that Tolkien uses with the highest frequency, you'll begin to see what the author cares about more than anything - his characters. No wonder Tolkien's publisher suggested splitting it into a trilogy. The longest single book Tolkien wrote was The Fellowship of the Ring, but even that's nothing when compared to all three parts of The Lord of the Rings gathered into one volume. 3) Word count across all of Tolkien's Middle Earth writings But you might be less familiar with the second most-mentioned character: Thorin, the dwarf who leads a seeming suicide mission to recapture the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug. Obviously, Bilbo - the hobbit in the title - is the most mentioned character in this book. Some of the information on this chart is obvious, like the fact the Frodo is the most mentioned character across the entire trilogy, or that Boromir's name doesn't pop up too much after his death. 1) Character mentions in The Lord of the Rings LOTR Project is full of fantastic graphs and charts that will offer you a new perspective on Middle-earth. Some of the charts are funny, too, like the flowchart of Gollum's decision-making process. The site is probably best known for its ever-updating genealogies of Tolkien's characters and its detailed, interactive map of Tolkien's world.

Launched in 2012, Johansson's project is an online compendium of Rings data, from Hobbit timelines to the demographic breakdown of Middle-earth. Tolkien - or at least watching the movies? (The third and final Hobbit film, which opens today, is probably your last chance to take a cinematic journey to Middle-earth.) Once you're done with that, have a look at these nine charts, which were created by Emil Johansson, the Swedish geek genius behind Lord of the Rings Project. If that reference was lost on you, might we suggest racing to your library to read the works of one J.R.R.

Lord of the rings graphic