The grandson of JRR Tolkien has revealed how Sir Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies tore his family apart and provoked a feud with his father.

Simon Tolkien, 53, told The Daily Telegraph that the immense popularity of the film adaptations was akin to being ''hit by a juggernaut''.

The former barrister, now himself a successful novelist, said he began to lose sight of his identity and became ''suffocated'' by being known as ''JRR Tolkien's grandson.''

The problems also sparked an ''incredibly, dreadfully painful'' feud with his father, Christopher, with the falling out becoming so bad that  the pair did not speak for ''a while.

Christopher Tolkien, now 87,  did not attend the premiere of the first Lord of the Rings movie, saying the Tolkien estate was better off avoiding avoid any specific association with the trilogy.

Earlier this year, he ' told French newspaper Le Monde: ''They gutted the book, making an action film for 15 to 25-year-olds.''

Simon Tolkien said the pair had since ''sorted out all our differences''.

The arrival of a Tolkien blockbuster no longer filled him with trepidation and 

The Hobbit wouldn't mean another ''sideswipe from the juggernaut''. 

- © Fairfax NZ News