We found a recording of Tolkien reading a bit ofThe Hobbit.

It was very useful to hear the smoky voice very English, rather professorial.

Well, he was a university teacher!"

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES, Ian McKellen, 2014, British writer J R R Tolkien (1892 - 1973), enjoying a pipe in his study at Merton College, Oxford, where he is a Fellow.

Ian McKellen as Gandalf in ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’; J.R.R. Tolkien in his study at Merton College, Oxford.Warner Bros./courtesy Everett; Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty

McKellen tells EW of Tolkien, who died in 1973.

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I was just doing my job and suddenly everybody knew about it, McKellen says.

That level of attention was unusual and I’m very lucky.