Spies In Middle Earth

Rich in raclette, roosti, chalets and wildflowers, Murren is the mountaintop village you imagine when thinking of Switzerland - but bucolic as it may be, there is far more here than meets the eye.

- Cameron Lange

In 1911, a teenage J.R.R. Tolkien set off "on foot with a heavy pack" into the Bernese Alps. Accompanied by a party of 12 family friends - let’s call it a fellowship - he spent several weeks crisscrossing the highlands in what turned out to be one of the most fateful treks in the history of English letters.

While the region was already of literary interest, notable as the place where Sherlock Holmes 'dies’ at the hands of Moriarty, the landscape proved an even greater influence on the young Tolkien. Never in his life would he see mountains of that size again, and for the next 50 years, his memories of them shaped the richly imagined world of Hobbits and Orcs in The Lord of the Rings.

It was the first part of his adventure, from Interlaken to Murren through the Lauterbrunnen valley, that left the greatest impression on him. There is much to suggest that the valley was the model for Rivendell, the Elvish city where the Hobbits find safety on their journey. Tolkien’s own illustrations of the refuge, marked by sheer cliffs and cascading waterfalls, are reminiscent of certain Lauterbrunnen postcards, and a dedicated sleuth will note the familiar name of Rivendell’s main river - Loudwater, and its Elvish translation, Bruinen.