EVERYONE knows about JRR Tolkien’s links with Birmingham, and the city’s inspiration for locations in The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.

But most fantasy followers have yet to discover Middle-Earth’s origins somewhere surprising – the Tolkien Triangle in East Yorkshire.

Fans eagerly awaiting Amazon TV blockbuster Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power can visit unexpected real-life haunts of the author.

Filmed in New Zealand, where Peter Jackson’s movies were set, the new prequel series is set to run on Prime Video from September 2.

Exploring storylines before the events of The Fellowship of the Ring movie, the new adaptation – the most expensive TV series ever – covers the Second Age of Middle-Earth.

It’s an epic drama set thousands of years before The Hobbit and takes viewers back to the era in which the iconic rings of power were forged.

Read more: Getting into good Hobbits in Lord of the Rings country

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are among the most famous works of fiction in English Literature, yet few people realise that Tolkien spent 18 months in East Yorkshire during World War 1.

During his stays there, he wrote several poems and stories, took inspiration from the landscape and place names – and even created two mythological languages.

Now, visitors can explore the ‘Tolkien Triangle’ which stretches down as far as spectacular Spurn Head, the main image at the top of this blog post.

It even includes Yorkshire Wolds village Wetwang, which actually made an appearance in the Fellowship of the Ring under its own name.

Here it is on a modern day map.

And here it is in Middle-Earth, marked ‘Nindalf or Wetwang’, from the maps that illustrated Tolkien’s fantasy masterworks.

There are more links at Roos, near Withernsea where, in 1917 his wife, Edith, danced for him in a wood while he was stationed at a nearby camp.

It was an event that inspired the tale of Beren and Lúthien which he wove into the story of Middle-earth, and is thought to feature as part of the new TV series.

Read more: Getting trolled in Lord of the Rings country

Apart from a two-month spell, Tolkien was in the East Riding of Yorkshire from April 1917 until October 1918, spending time at Kilnsea and Easington, where he learned about the villages, which were lost to the sea due to coastal erosion.

It’s now generally accepted that the landscape and coastline of East Yorkshire informed Tolkien’s later writing. Discover more about Visit East Yorkshire’s ‘Tolkien Triangle’ at bit.ly/389Wdea.