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Ed Sheeran's affiliation with Middle Earth goes as far as recording the credits track 'I See Fire' for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and the fact I have some friends who say he could have played Bilbo.

As far as I know, and I could be very wrong, he's not the type of guy who genuinely begged his friends to dress up as Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin to go and watch The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - it wasn't me either... I swear.

However, he is the kind of guy to get caught up in his work and ask for planning permission to build a hobbit hole-like recording studio at the back of his garden.

And it's fucking sick.

The 26ft wide 9ft high pod sits on the grounds of his £900,000 property in Suffolk, but could be the subject of an Environmental Health order should he make too much noise in there.

It was initially meant as a 'garden room' but with an adjoining hot tub and loads of recording equipment in there, that tag quickly became redundant.

Apparently Ed also has plans to turn his hobbit hole into something even less hobbit-like by building a pool and gym complex nearby.

I can't remember Bilbo returning from his adventure into Middle Earth and deciding to build a gym and pool at his house in The Shire. Which just proves my earlier point that Ed Sheeran's affiliation with J.R.R Tolkien's Middle Earth doesn't stretch that far.

Words by George Pavlou