Mike Muhling and Fikirte Hailmariam. Photo by Steve Grant

A BOOK to be launched at WA’s only Ethiopian Restaurant in Hamilton Hill argues Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings was inspired by ancient Abyssinia (now Ethiopia).

And the local Ethiopian community couldn’t be happier for some positive news about their country, which has much more to it than the stereotypes of war-ravaged desert and famine, says restaurant owner Fikirte Hailmariam.

“People don’t understand our culture, and this [Tolkien link] helps a lot for our country.”

Speculation about Tolkien’s inspiration has been rife since the 1950s, but he remained vague on the subject.

Author of The Real Middle-Earth, Mike Muhling, first read the trilogy aged 10, and has lost count how many times he’s read it since.

During a visit to Ethiopia in 2005 he noticed significant historic sites with similar names to Tolkien’s imagined landscape, such as Gondar and Gondor, Roha and Rohan and the dark tower of Barad-dur with the Ethiopian town of Bahir Dar.

Since then he’s linked five key Ethiopian sites to names in the  trilogy and says that’s no coincidence.

And once he started looking he found other places he says match Tolkien’s fantasy world.

“Isengard was inspired by the stelae at Axum and the Istari wizards were inspired by Abyssinia’s saints.”

North of the country the Danakil Depression is a weird and desolate landscape of sulphuric ash, recognisable in the ring trilogy, Muhling says.

He argues Tolkien, born in Africa, had a life-long interest in the continent and this, coupled with his staunch Catholicism, sparked an interest in Abyssinia.

He says the coincidences go beyond place names, and says there are many clues to indicate Abyssinian culture influenced Tolkien. The long-deposed royal family traced its lineage back to Solomon and, many will be surprised to learn, it was the world’s first Catholic nation and a rival to the power and might of Rome.

It was relatively unknown in the west until the audacious, 1930 coronation of Emperor Haile Selassie and hit the headlines again five years later when fascist-led Italy invaded.

At the time Tolkien had been struggling for a follow-up to The Hobbit, and Muhling argues with Abyssinia in the news a wealth of ideas was born, particularly as the author had a great interest in empires (he’d been ropeable as England’s vassal states broke free).

Muhling will sign copies of The Real Middle-Earth at the Ethiopian Restaurant on Carrington St, Sat May 25 at 6pm and at Clancy’s, Canning Hwy, Applecross May 30 at 3pm.

by JENNY D’ANGER