AFTER Harry Potter mania, Gwent sci-fi fans are eagerly awaiting the release of the new film version of J R R Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Rings. Mike Buckingham reports.

"One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them. One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them"

The magic incantation which has thrilled and chilled and ignited the imaginations of 100 million readers around the globe.

The words were first read in 1954, when J R R Tolkien's The Fellowship of The Ring, the first volume of Lord of The Rings, was published.

From his own imagination enriched by his immense scholarship in Celtic, Saxon and Nordic folklore, Tolkien had woven an epic, defining for many the archetypal struggle between good and evil. Several polls voted the trilogy Book of the Century, and it became the gold standard by which other works of what became known as the fantasy genre are judged.

Other writers had invented worlds but none had the same degree of coherence as Tolkien's with its own languages and alphabets which nevertheless rest upon a scholarly basis.

The world that Tolkien forged like the iron of the Dwarves from pure imagination has now been, in the words of publicists, "brought to life on the motion picture screen" , the implication being that it had no life before.

For several years director Peter Jackson has been filming amid the spectacular scenery of New Zealand, together with a retinue of digital wizards, medieval weapons experts, sculptors, linguists, dressmakers, make-up designers, blacksmiths and model builders - as well as an internationally renowned cast of actors, including Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Sir Ian McKellen and thousands of extras.

The production unfurls on December 19 with The Fellowship of The Ring, to be followed by two more instalments in which the cast of men, hobbits, elves, dwarves, wizards, trolls and orcs play their epic parts.

The cast list is as impressive as the technological wizardry, but still the fear must be that in defying Tolkien's wish that the hobbits and other denizens never be portrayed, the film itself has come under the subtle power of the Ring.

Tim Lebbon, Gwent's foremost fantasy writer, says he is hopeful that the film might catch some of Tolkien's magic.

"I have seen the trailers, which look stunning, but then trailers always do. Peter Jackson is his own man, who, I think, will avoid some of the pitfalls.

"I read the book and will always have a Middle Earth in my mind's eye. My young daughter will see the film before she ever reads the book and so will have the characters imagined for her.

"I have to confess that makes me a little sad."