Olympic Opening Ceremony Channels Inner Hobbit with a Shire Look

The Olympic opening ceremony will flash a myriad of images that invokes a very real feeling of home and country for Great Britain. It seems that Lord of the Rings is as good a place as any to kick it all off. 

NBC may be delaying the video of the opening ceremony, but we all know spoilers abound thanks to modern technology and things like Twitter. 

With that, we have some glorious pictures for you ahead of the official start. 

Here is a pic snapped off by CBS Sports that shows a typical English countryside. By typical, I mean what I think of when tasked with the thought. I couldn't do any better if I closed my eyes and thought of the start of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

That is the shire. 

There was also this tweet from Sports Illustrated's Ian Thomsen.

"

Inside the Olympic Stadium a half-hour before the Opening Ceremony ... so lucky to be here! twitter.com/SI_IanThomsen/…

— Ian Thomsen (@SI_IanThomsen) July 27, 2012"

Yes, there is also a big, poofy ball for some reason. Business Insider spotted the same thing and includes it here. 

Now all we need is some good ale and pipe weed to take us into Danny Boyle's epic opening ceremony. 

Try as I might, I can't stop hearing, "Shire...Baggins." 

Follow me on Twitter for more Olympic Glory. 

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