The Biggest Tolkien Fans - According To Google Trends

[Lalwendë]

Google trends is quite an interesting thing. It reveals a lot about what people like to search for on Google - including Tolkien!

Which cities in the world do the most searches for Tolkien? Here's the top ten:

1. Warsaw, Poland

2. Santiago, Chile

3. Buenos Aires, Argentina

4. Milan, Italy

5. Brussels, Belgium

6. Madrid, Spain

7. Amsterdam, Netherlands

8. Chicago, IL, USA

9. Paris, France

10. Sydney, Australia

And in the UK?
1. Oxford, United Kingdom

2. Cambridge, United Kingdom

3. Leeds, United Kingdom

4. Birmingham, United Kingdom

5. Bletchley, United Kingdom

6. Nottingham, United Kingdom

7. Bristol, United Kingdom

8. Edinburgh, United Kingdom

9. Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

10. London, United Kingdom

Interestingly, the Welsh and Scots register more searches for "tolkien" than do the English.

Overall, Norwegians are the people most likely to search for "tolkien" on Google.

However, if you put "Lord of the rings" into the database, the top ten global searches list returns the following top ten:

1. Birmingham, United Kingdom

2. Sydney, Australia

3. Melbourne, Australia

4. Manchester, United Kingdom

5. Toronto, Canada

6. Amsterdam, Netherlands

7. London, United Kingdom

8. Brussels, Belgium

9. Chicago, IL, USA

10. Los Angeles, CA, USA

Which makes Brummies the biggest fans of Tolkien's greatest work!

If you fancy a go, you can set the parameters to search within your own country or region. Have fun!

http://www.google.co.uk/trends?q=lor...ate=all&sort=0

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Interesting, Lal!
Just one comment about the international possibilities - "Tolkien" is the same in all languages, which is why it's likely to get searched for in so many countries. "Lord of the Rings" is English, and many readers in other areas of the world will not search for that, but for the translated equivalent in their own language.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Just one comment about the international possibilities - "Tolkien" is the same in all languages, which is why it's likely to get searched for in so many countries. "Lord of the Rings" is English, and many readers in other areas of the world will not search for that, but for the translated equivalent in their own language.

So that makes the folks from Amsterdam and Brussels the biggest Tolkien fans... or the most unfaithful to their nationality

[The Might]

I am surprised that Neuenrade, Germany didn't make since I live there.

[Thinlómien]

Bah, I'm sure that Helsinki, Finland would make it to those top tens if this wasn't such a little city. You know, in order to be fair, the number of searches should be compared to the number of inhabitants...

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Bah, I'm sure that Helsinki, Finland would make it to those top tens if this wasn't such a little city. You know, in order to be fair, the number of searches should be compared to the number of inhabitants...

I tried it with the name of the Finnish translation and Helsinki didn't even make it to the top ten of Finland.

But I think that must be because we already have all the Lotr related websites saved as bookmarks.

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

But I think that must be because we already have all the Lotr related websites saved as bookmarks.

Yes, and because we don't search with such common noob words like Tolkien or Lord of the Rings but things like, say, I vene Kemen or other "advanced" stuff...

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

However, if you put "Lord of the rings" into the database, the top ten global searches list returns the following top ten:

1. Birmingham, United Kingdom

2. Sydney, Australia

3. Melbourne, Australia

What? My hometown beaten by... SYDNEY?! Our deadly enemy?

[Rumil]

Awroight, s bostin innit, owr Brum top o th' werld!

Great to hear my (adopted) home city is top of the list, now can you configure it to see if Villians or Bluenoses are most Tolkieny? (Somehow I doubt its the Baggies)

PS top searchers for 'Saucepan' are in Reading, UK ;-)

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

So that makes the folks from Amsterdam and Brussels the biggest Tolkien fans... or the most unfaithful to their nationality

Or extremely proficient anglophones. Unsurprisingly given that Dutch is so closely related to English, Netherlanders tend to speak English very well. Brussels is a very cosmopolitan because of the European organisations based there.
and I believe both countries were able to receive BBC broadcasts before technology made it more widely available. However the sad fact is for Tolkien's home country is that the English are notorious with regards to language learning and are unlikely to get better in the near future. On the continent it seems usual for anyone of university level education to have a working knowledge of at least one MFL...

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Interesting, Lal!
Just one comment about the international possibilities - "Tolkien" is the same in all languages, which is why it's likely to get searched for in so many countries. "Lord of the Rings" is English, and many readers in other areas of the world will not search for that, but for the translated equivalent in their own language.

I didn't think of that! It's interesting - what happens if say someone with their browser configured for the German language looks up Der Herr der Ringe (I think that's it? ) on Google? Does it only bring up German language pages or does it bring up all pages about Lord of the Rings?

Shame you cannot look up Barrow Downs on Google trends

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Bah, I'm sure that Helsinki, Finland would make it to those top tens if this wasn't such a little city. You know, in order to be fair, the number of searches should be compared to the number of inhabitants...

Actually, Lommy, bang in a few names and so on and see what comes up (not everything will). I just typed in "aragorn" and Finns are way, way ahead of every other nation on searching this name! Top cities are Tampere and Helsinki. Finland, a nation obsessed by Aragorn!

Amusingly, Tykes are very interested in Gollum and Aragorn too, as Sheffield figures in the top tens on these name searches. Poles and Finns are fond of Sauron. Spain loves Tom Bombadil. Aussies and Swedes love Orcsies.

Meanwhile people of Alexandria in the USA have a truly disturbing obsession with Bilbo Baggins, as do the people of Bucharest with good old Boromir. I can only guess that with such weirdly high figures there are local things sharing those names!

BTW I apologise for double posting. I got all over excited because of a statistics database....what a nerd...

[Estelyn Telcontar]

I did google "Herr der Ringe" (yes, you got that right, Lal!) - no further configuration was necessary - and got Austria ranking just barely ahead of Germany, then Switzerland. The top ten cities were all in Germany: Wesel, Bochum, Giessen, Erfurt, Kiel, Koblenz, Aachen, Leipzig, Würzburg, Braunschweig. Interestingly, those aren't the cities with the highest population, as one might logically think. Another interesting thing showed up on the search time chart - there was a peak at the beginning of the chart in 2004 (right after the third movie came out) and a slight rise at the end of that year (DVDs sold), since then it's been a fairly low level.

[Lalwendë]

That might suggest where the most "ringers" live then!

The high figures around the time of the films just shows how big the hype machine was!

If you put in "lord of the rings" you notice it rises slightly when Children of Hurin was released too. And Canadians seemed very interested in both 'the hobbit" and in "christopher tolkien".

Quite sad, actually, when you type in the names of the stars of the films, as John Rhys Davies doesn't feature so his star has fallen quite a lot, but the other stars still feature. Sean Bean is predictably most popular globally in Sheffield!

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Hmmm, that could mean that Karl Urban will be raising his statistics soon - he's billed to play Dr. McCoy in the new Star Trek movie!

[Lalwendë]

Interest in him had gone flat according to that, and it shot up when he got cast in Star Trek! Miranda Otto has flatlined though, and Bernard Hill doesn't feature at all (poor Bernard, I'm fond of him ).

Note, don't go typing in "ents" as all it brings up is vast numbers of searches in the UK's university cities, as "ents' is also student-speak for "entertainments'

[THE Ka]

Originally Posted by Mith

and I believe both countries were able to receive BBC broadcasts before technology made it more widely available.

Funny you mention that, because my great uncle still swears to this day, that the only reason why his 'proper' english was improved was because of his time in the Netherlands and everyone listening to the BBC on the radio all day, and not his English degree...

Oh, by the way, Santiago just beat Warsaw.

Originally Posted by Lal

BTW I apologise for double posting. I got all over excited because of a statistics database....what a nerd...

Heh, but you have to admit. It is an amazing way to waste time when you have nothing else immediate to do. Plus, it takes care of natural curiousity quite efficiently.


I'm not seeing the major facination with Tolkien amoung Warsawites, unless I'm talking with the wrong penpal because she hasn't mentioned anything Tolkien-related. Then again, she only is a part time Warsaw native, maybe she hasn't caught the tolkien bug that we all prize yet.

I did a search in British Columbia, just to see if the uni city I'm applying to is Tolkien friendly.
Apparently not! It's sixth on the bloody list. The province to begin with is second lowest on the list too.
Ugh. You'd think the mostly and historically english half of Canada, the one I knew so well, would be more Tolkien inquisitive, but oh well.

Originally Posted by Lal

Miranda Otto has flatlined though, and Bernard Hill doesn't feature at all (poor Bernard, I'm fond of him ).

I know, and it's sad. She was in a film that came out awhile ago, Danny Deckchair I believe. My parents and I watched it over and over again (my mom loves Australian cinema, and as genetics so do I), mostly for her, because she's amazing, but doesn't over do it, and has this natural beauty. So, it's sort of been this game of 'spot miranda otto'. I hope she gets another film soon...



~ Curious Much Ka

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Regions

1. Sweden

2. Poland

3. Finland

4. Germany

5. United Kingdom

6. Canada

7. Australia

8. Netherlands

9. United States

10. France



Cities

1. Stockholm, Sweden

2. Szczecin, Poland

3. Wroclaw, Poland

4. Poznan, Poland

5. Lodz, Poland

6. Krakow, Poland

7. Warsaw, Poland

8. Gdansk, Poland

9. Katowice, Poland

10. Goteborg, Sweden



Not to disparage famed Warg-appreciating lands such as Peru () because of the language issue, but my goodness! My respect for the wonderful people of Sweden and Poland just increased tenfold!

[Eönwë]

Slovakia seems to like Galadriel, Noerway for Minas Tirith, and Poland has lately turned to the sark side, a it has the most searches for Sauron. Chile have an affinity with Nazgul, and Sweden and Norway are the new Angmar. Oh, and Canadians like Smaug.

And Gandalf is loved by Croatia and Poland more than double the amount of any other country.

Ah, and ourdear Samwise has been officially relocated to Sweden, and Frodo is Croatia's. THe USA and UK like Pippin.

And who would have thought it. Legolas is most appreciated in the Philippines.

But it was obvious Gimli would be most loved by canada. But by this much?

Faramir is Hungarian and Romania likes Boromir

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Hey, Czech republic is second in searches for Galadriel!!! That's pretty cool! (And also third for Witch-King... Greeks are the first in that and Hungarians the second.)

[littlemanpoet]

Anybody try "Middle Earth" yet? I would but my work computer allows only one site at a time.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Anybody try "Middle Earth" yet? I would but my work computer allows only one site at a time.

You just made my day, elempi. Watch this! I did not write "Middle Earth" but "Middle-Earth" (Middle Earth I believe has Greece on the top). And guess what appeared?

1. Czech Republic, resp. by regions Prague. Mwahahaa!!! Seems to be in lead in both cases by quite a LOT (about a 1/6 or 1/5 more than the second place).
2. Hungary / by regions Bratislava (Slovakia)
3. Slovakia / Zagreb (Croatia)
4. Croatia / Budapest (Hungary)
5. Russia / Oslo (Norway)
6. Denmark / Helsinki (Finland)
7. Finland / Izmir (Turkey)
8. Norway / Athens (Greece)
9. Greece / Istanbul (Turkey)
10. Turkey / Ankara (Turkey)

[Thinlómien]

Lately, this thread has started to make more sense...

[THE Ka]

1. Czech Republic, resp. by regions Prague. Mwahahaa!!! Seems to be in lead in both cases by quite a LOT (about a 1/6 or 1/5 more than the second place).

That's because they're cool, and they know it.
Though, Brno has the better architecture...

I tried looking up Radagast, since Gandalf seems to be getting a lot of attention as of now, but it has no results.
Which is a shame, because one of the names among the slavic pantheon is 'radagast', who deals with the wellbeing of travellers and such. I found it awhile back and probably posted about it (I can never remember half the things I post anymore...), but hopefully the trend program develops further to give a little info on poor Radagast.

Rohan, name wise, is the most popular in India. Makes sense.
Next is Ireland, interesting.

Blue Mountains get Australia.

Mirkwood, no results for some reason...

Elrond is Swedish, not Agent Smith. It's settled.

No results for shelob (maybe I'm not searching right, hmm).

And thankfully, no results for sackville-baggins.

~ Ta ta, all for now Ka

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by THE Ka

That's because they're cool, and they know it.

Not sure whether it's true (the latter part, of course ), and if they were to learn it, that they don't take it the wrong way (meaning, take it as appreciation of the bad things about them).

Though, Brno has the better architecture...

Brno? You mean that small serpentine before Vienna?

I tried looking up Radagast, since Gandalf seems to be getting a lot of attention as of now, but it has no results.
Which is a shame, because one of the names among the slavic pantheon is 'radagast', who deals with the wellbeing of travellers and such. I found it awhile back and probably posted about it (I can never remember half the things I post anymore...), but hopefully the trend program develops further to give a little info on poor Radagast.

In fact, the god is named "Radegast". Not that it would make any difference. I already said somewhere around here that we have Radegast beer as well (and speaking of it, there is a statue of Radegast on mount Radhošť here - well, and of course those who know Middle-Earth was real, are aware of the fact that it's the place where Rhosgobel used to be in the Third Age ).

------
Top results for Gollum: Chile, Mexico, Sweden.
Top results for Sméagol: Mexico, Brazil, Netherlands.
Conclusion: Gollum is not dead, he lives somewhere in Central or South America. Why not.

(and btw the one who made all the search entries is of course Sauron)

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Anybody try "Middle Earth" yet? I would but my work computer allows only one site at a time.

I tried Middle Earth (minus the hyphen) for the UK, which interestingly brings up Middlesbrough as top place where this is a search term. Now I happen to know this is NOT because Middlesbrough is a secret hive of Tolkien fans, but because the town's figures will also include Whitby and one of the local heroes is Caedmon who wrote in his hymn about 'Middengeard'

Smaug - top nation is Canada, top city is LA (I wonder if that's just lots of people who cannot spell, typing in what the word 'smog', a perennial problem in LA, sounds like in a West Coast drawl? ).

Eru - overwhelmingly, disturbingly, Iceland come way above any other nation. So, what is an Eru in Icelandic then? It must mean 'beer' or something for it to get such weird figures.

Slovaks favour the morning whereas Chileans and Swedes favour the evening (the stats on Galadriel and Arwen); Finns and residents of Seattle take the third way and have a thing about Eowyn (maybe she's a Riot Grrl, as she's got so many fans in Seattle?).

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by THE Ka

Rohan, name wise, is the most popular in India. Makes sense.

Well I actually know someone who was born in India and is called Rohan

[THE Ka]

Seattle take the third way and have a thing about Eowyn (maybe she's a Riot Grrl, as she's got so many fans in Seattle?).

Ha, ha, yes, the WTO thinks we're all very bad people, and has never forgotten it...

I dunno, in 1999 I never saw any Eowyn dress ups (I was a bit younger then, but I do remember not being able to go to my uncle and aunt's house because of the riots). Mostly some angry people with GAP clothing, or trashing their stores. Maybe, methinks, she might have lead the way to the riot of the Gap of Rohan (I know, very lame joke).
Though, for the popularity, I don't have much of a clue. Did see a cardboard cut out of her in an office window once, along with a Gollum one too somewhere else. Though, my favourite is actually in Victoria, B.C., Canada, in a small record shop. Legolas and Gimli cutouts are in the window and hold different size LP's, respectively. It's called T's Records, I think.

Brno? You mean that small serpentine before Vienna?

Eh gasp!


~ pobaveny Ka