The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power may seem like the world’s first TV show from that famed universe, but that accolade was swept up by another series created in the ’90s, and that’s not counting movies in multiple parts. Amazon Prime Video’s 2022 show was received well by critics and hit high ratings, despite firing up the Tolkien fandom with numerous polarizing choices. It is often praised as the first show to dare adapt Lord of the Rings’ Tom Bombadil, but this is one commendation it doesn’t deserve. That goes to a little-known Scandinavian adaptation.

The two-part Swedish movie Sagan om Ringen exhibited the first on-screen depiction of Tom Bombadil in 1971, but a Finnish miniseries was the first proper Lord of the Rings TV show and the first TV show to adapt Tom Bombadil. The Rings of Power season 3 will continue to adapt material created by J.R.R. Tolkien on the Second Age of Middle-earth, whereas the Finnish TV show tackles the Third Age events of The Lord of the Rings, despite its title translating to “The Hobbits.” Directed by Timo Torikka, Hobitit is worth a watch for any long-term LotR fan.

Finland’s Lord Of The Rings Miniseries From The ’90s Is Wild & Worth A Watch

Hobitit Is A Creative Interpretation Of Tolkien’s Book

Hobitit originally aired in 1993 on national TV in Finland on Yle TV1 and contains some of the most surprising Lord of the Rings scenes committed to camera, including a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Scouring of the Shire and a Galadriel reminiscent of the Lady of the Lake of Arthurian myth. This creative 9-episode miniseries follows an old Samwise Gamgee telling his story to young Hobbits. Of all The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, this may be the most oddly Elvish, performed in Finnish, which Tolkien used to inform his many Elvish languages.

Where To Watch Hobitit After The Rings Of Power

Hobitit Is Unofficially Available To Watch

Hobitit is no longer airing in Finland or anywhere else around the world, but it is unofficially available to watch. The series was critically acclaimed in Finland, despite the obvious aging of its effects and digital quality. It was an early Finnish example of chroma keying, removing subjects from their background using a blue screen. Green screens are more commonly used nowadays as part of far more complex CGI, but Hobitit is worth seeking out for its unrecognizable Tolkien characters alone. The best Lord of the Rings characters can be seen in strange forms in Hobitit on YouTube.

Sauron is a literal eyeball and Boromir gets the Samurai treatment. As left-of-center as this seems, even Peter Jackson took inspiration from Samurai culture for his Elven archers in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers movie. This amusing TV series was actually based on another LotR adaptation — a six-hour play debuting at the Suomenlinna Summer Theater in 1988 which transformed a whole maritime fortress island into Middle-earth. Although rights expired and Hobitit can’t be revived in Finland, subtitled versions can be watched online, keeping Finland’s predecessor to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power circulating.