* The following samples presumably predate the Lord of the Rings, but they were not explicitly dated: DTS 16, DTS 17, DTS 18 – Elvish Script Sample I, II, III, with parts of the English poems Errantry and Bombadil, first published in the Silmarillion Calendar 1978, later in Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien, as well as DTS 23 – So Lúthien, a page of the English Lay of Leithan text facsimiled in The Lays of Beleriand: 299.

Frodo becomes in some ways the symbolic representation of the conscience of Hobbits, a point made explicitly in the story " Leaf by Niggle " which Tolkien wrote at the same time as the first nine chapters of The Lord of the Rings.

In a letter from circa 1963 Tolkien says explicitly that Sauron held the rings:

Unlike other fantasy dwarves, Tolkien does not explicitly have them use war hammers.

Tolkien calls the dragon Scatha a " long-worm " but does not explicitly explain the term.

This is unlikely since no mortal could live that long, and Tolkien says explicitly that he was a living man and not a wraith.

Tolkien describes Orcs explicitly in one of his Letters:

Since Tolkien never explicitly stated what the creature is, others have felt free to speculate on its identity and origins.

Although Tolkien said that The Hobbit was conceived separately from his mythological stories, early drafts show that it was set in that world, referring explicitly to characters and places which appeared in his Book of Lost Tales which would later become The Silmarillion.

Tolkien now explicitly linked the story to the Silmarillion tales, but placed it some six thousand years later in time.

These links are to Tolkien websites where Middle-earth canon issues are discussed by readers, fans, etc.

Humphrey Carpenter in his 1977 biography relates that Tolkien owned a postcard entitled Der Berggeist (), and on the paper cover in which he kept it, he wrote " the origin of Gandalf ".

When writing The Hobbit in the early 1930s Tolkien gave the name Gandalf to the leader of the Dwarves, the character later called Thorin Oakenshield.

Gandalf's role and importance was substantially increased in the conception of The Lord of the Rings, and in a letter of 1954, Tolkien refers to Gandalf as an " angel incarnate ".

Both in 1965 and 1971 Tolkien again refers to Gandalf as an angelic being.

In a letter of 1946 Tolkien stated that he thought of Gandalf as an " Odinic wanderer ".

Tolkien discusses the characteristics of Gandalf in his essay on the Istari, which appears in the work Unfinished Tales.

* The painting from which Tolkien drew inspiration for Gandalf

Tolkien describes them as " fell beasts ", though Tolkien applies the adjective fell (" fierce, cruel ") to a variety of other creatures throughout The Lord of the Rings — even at one point to Gandalf.

However, Christopher Tolkien indicates that his father intended to change this derivation and bring Radagast in line with the other wizard-names, Gandalf and Saruman, by associating it with the old language of the Men of the Vales of Anduin.

They were named for Gandalf the wizard, from the Middle-earth stories by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Tolkien indirectly states that Théoden's death could have been prevented if Gandalf had helped the Rohirrim instead, as he had intended.

Gandalf states that his name in " the south " is " Incánus " ( which is obviously Latin and means " very grey-haired " and thus may be simply a translation of the original Olorin's name among the Haradrim, just like name " Gandalf " itself is an anglicized Old Norse translation of a Westron name ), thought by some to be a Haradrim name, but speculated by Tolkien to actually be a Westron or Sindarin form from Gondor.

While Tolkien wrote that the Orcs were already demoralized before Gandalf arrived, the film encounter is somewhat more dramatic with the Orcs forming up an organized sheltron against the charging Rohirrim horseman but at last minute the Orcs ' line falters after they are dazzled by sunlight.

* Gandalf, a chess engine, named after the Tolkien character

In his fictional writings, J. R. R. Tolkien named his wizard Gandalf after the Dvergr.

The painting is reproduced on a postcard that was in the possession of J. R. R. Tolkien, marked " the origin of Gandalf ".

The element falas in the name of the region is a Sindarin word for " shore " or " beach ", while bel was stated by Tolkien to derive from a pre-Númenórean name of Elvish origin .</ div >

The element arnen in the name was stated by Tolkien to have been of pre-Númenórean origin, while emyn is a Sindarin word for " hills ".< ref name =" har-lond-amon "></ div >

Next element to be introduced was the " Land of Seven Streams "; Tolkien was hesitant for some time about its relation to other places, writing at different times that it was located north or south of Black Mountains, within the Land of Ond or separate from it.

She is one of a few instances, along with Tom Bombadil and the Cats of Queen Berúthiel, where Tolkien does not provide a clear background for an element of his fiction.

The element arnen in the name was stated by Tolkien < ref name =" har-lond-amon "> to have been of pre-Númenórean origin, while emyn is a Sindarin word for " hills ".</ div >

For instance, J. R. R. Tolkien, responding to the Anglo-Saxon academic debate on escapism in the 1930s, wrote in his essay " On Fairy-Stories " that escapism had an element of emancipation in its attempt to figure a different reality.

Tolkien concluded that, while the meaning of the first element was evidently sigel " Sun ", the meaning of the second element hearwan was not recoverable:

However, based on what can be gleaned from this, it seems it is at this point that Tolkien decided to introduce the idea of having the tomb of Elendil in Halifirien, which became an essential element in the work Cirion and Eorl.

George R. R. Martin set the Ice and Fire story in an alternative world of Earth or a " secondary world ", such as J. R. R. Tolkien pioneered with Middle-earth.

From Tolkien to the modern day, authors in this genre tend to create their own worlds where they set multi-tiered narratives such as the Belgariad, Malloreon, Wheel of Time, Malazan Book of the Fallen, The Black Company, The Sword of Truth, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn.

The second stage featured 21 books by distinct authors: the top 25 with Rowling represented only by her fourth volume, Goblet of Fire, and Tolkien only by The Lord of the Rings.

The band Rhapsody Of Fire have created and tell the stories of a full-developed fantasy world with tales of epic wars between good and evil, although many elements are taken directly from Tolkien and other authors.

Tolkien greatly prefers this motif over the later medieval trend of using the dragon as a symbolic or allegorical figure, such as in the legend of St. George.

C. S. Lewis, friend of Tolkien ( and later author of The Chronicles of Narnia between 1949 – 1964 ), writing in The Times reports:

Auden was later to correspond with Tolkien, and they became friends.

Tolkien wrote the later story in much less humorous tones and infused it with more complex moral and philosophical themes.

On the association between the two ' Inklings ' societies, Tolkien later said " although our habit was to read aloud compositions of various kinds ( and lengths!

Tolkien wrote, many years later: " it was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before.

Tolkien later assigned this name to an ancient king who had ordered some spears from the dwarves.

There he learnt a lot about writing and editing, and later admitted of Tolkien's influence, " to be successful in fantasy, you have to take the measure of Tolkien — work with his strengths and away from his weaknesses ".

Textual history was traced by Christopher Tolkien in the volumes of The History of Middle-earth, and the overall subject has gained attention among later researchers and fans.

The word tarlang means " stiff neck " in Sindarin, and was stated by Tolkien to have originally been the name of the mountain ridge, later interpreted by folk as a personal name .</ div >

As he later recalled, Tolkien thought about " adventures " that the Company would meet on their way to Mordor and considered employing " Stone-Men " as one of them ; other preserved notes mention a " city of stone and civilized men ", its siege and a " Land of Ond ".

By the time Tolkien began rewriting " The Council of Elrond " a year later, he had developed a story that Aragorn's ancestors were in past Kings in Boromir's hometown.

While working upon the " Homeric catalogue ", as he called it, of the reinforcements coming to Minas Tirith, Tolkien devised the names Lossarnach, Anfalas, Lamedon and Pinnath Gelin, all of which appear on a new version of the map in final locations with the exception of Lamedon, first placed in northern Lebennin and later moved westward.

The appendices to The Lord of the Rings were brought to a finished state in 1953 – 54, but a decade later, during preparations for the release of the Second Edition, Tolkien elaborated the events that had led to the Kin-strife and introduced the regency of Rómendacil II.

Along with a few words in Khuzdul, Tolkien also developed runes of his own invention ( the Cirth ), said to have been invented by Elves and later adopted by the Dwarves.

The most Dwarf-centric story from The Book of Lost Tales, " The Nauglafring ", was not redrafted to fit with the later positive portrayal of the dwarves from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, nor other events in the Silmarillion, leading Christopher Tolkien significantly to rewrite it with input from Guy Gavriel Kay in preparation for publication.

While studying at Oxford, Tolkien developed a constructed language that later became known as Quenya.

It may be that Tolkien conceived the Elvish word Arda as the fictional prehistoric source of such words in later Mannish languages.

However, it is unclear if this is the case, and it appears that Tolkien may have dropped the use of " vanya " as a verb in his later conceptions of Quenya.

Dragons will be still present but they will not interfere until later ages according to letter 144 of Tolkien.

While Tolkien originally described Middle-earth as a fictional early history of the real Earth he later adjusted this slightly to describe it as a mythical time within the history of Earth.

But this is not borne out in any of the later genealogies that Tolkien left behind.