Tolkien Fever Outside Oslo, Norway Cinema
Staff Reporter

Around three hundred Tolkien fans braved the cold to queue up outside the Colosseum on Sunday night/Monday morning. And their efforts proved wise, as the Oslo premiere of Lord of the Rings was sold out in just an hour.

Some waited patiently for hours, but many more had been queuing for days. The first four enthusiasts set up camp outside the cinema as early as Wednesday 31st October. Tickets were to go on sale at 8 a.m. on Monday 5th November, and they weren't taking any chances.

It must have been quite a sight for regular cinemagoers visiting the Colosseum film theatre on Sunday evening. By 6 p.m. the Lord of the Rings queue had swelled to almost 200 eager fans. Many of them were dressed as Tolkien characters while others were more practical in warm fleeces or tucked up inside sleeping bags. Some had even erected elaborate "woodland" tents, unusual for downtown Oslo but quite in keeping with the theme of the film.

The crowds passed the hours reading, chatting or listening to a 13-hour-long BBC audio dramatisation of Tolkien's fabulous fantasy, and sustenance came in the form of hotdogs cooked on portable stoves or nosh from nearby take-away restaurants.

A total of 75,000 tickets went on sale all over the country on Monday morning for the Norwegian premiere of Lord of the Rings on 19th December.