In The Father Christmas Letters, which Tolkien wrote for his children, Red Gnomes are helpful creatures who come from Norway to the North Pole to assist Father Christmas and his Elves in fighting the wicked Goblins.

He wrote, in Letter 131 of The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, " I dislike Allegory.

Tolkien wrote that myths held " fundamental things ".

As Tolkien wrote, "... The episode of the theft arose naturally ( and almost inevitably ) from the circumstances.

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

Many of the thematic and stylistic differences arose because Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a story for children, and The Lord of the Rings for the same audience, who had subsequently grown up since its publication.

Tolkien wrote in his essay " On Fairy Stories " that the terms " fantasy " and " enchantment " are connected to not only "... the satisfaction of certain primordial human desires ..." but also "... the origin of language and of the mind.

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.

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 ".

Tolkien wrote in one of his letters: " what I think is a primary ‘ fact ’ about my work, that it is all of a piece, and fundamentally linguistic in inspiration.

" Tolkien wrote to W. H. Auden that The Marvellous Land of Snergs " was probably an unconscious source-book for the Hobbits " and he told an interviewer that the word hobbit " might have been associated with Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt " ( like hobbits, George Babbitt enjoys the comforts of his home ).

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.

Tolkien once wrote that he " did not intend the steed of the Witch-king to be what is now called a ' pterodactyl '", while acknowledging that it was " obviously ... pterodactylic and owes much " to the " new ... mythology of the ' Prehistoric '", and might even be " a last survivor of older geological eras.

( Tolkien wrote of Boromir's journey that " the courage and hardihood required is not fully recognized in the narrative ".

Tolkien describes Boromir's appearance as reflecting his Númenórean descent: tall ( Tolkien wrote he was 6 ' 4 " or 193 cm ), fair, dark-haired, and grey-eyed.

In a 1951 letter, Tolkien himself wrote about " the Byzantine City of Minas Tirith.

Tolkien wrote in a private letter:

Tolkien wrote that he gave up his mission as one of the Wizards by becoming too obsessed with animals and plants.

Sometime before 1969 Tolkien wrote the essay Of Dwarves and Men, in which detailed consideration was given to the Dwarves ' use of language, that the names given in the stories were of Northern Mannish origin, and Khuzdûl being their own secret tongue and the naming of the Seven Houses of the Dwarves.

In response to a query about clothing styles in Middle-earth, Tolkien wrote:

In 1914 when he was studying at King Edward's School, Birmingham, Tolkien wrote a poem The Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star which was inspired by the " Crist " poem of Cynewulf.

Eldamar is " Elvenhome ", the " coastal region of Aman, settled by the Elves ", wrote Tolkien.

Tolkien wrote at least four versions of the oath itself, as found in The History of Middle-earth.

In The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien wrote that Mithril is found only in Khazad-dûm ( Moria ) in Middle-earth, where it is mined by 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 ".

There is a poem by Tolkien dated to 1914 entitled " The Voyage of Eärendel the Evening Star " ( published in The Book of Lost Tales 2 267 – 269 ).

There is, however, no authorial indication that Tolkien had a real-world metal in mind.

There is a drawing by Tolkien that he titled " Barad-dûr "; since he did not publish it during his lifetime, it is unclear how close the drawing is to his mature vision of the tower.

There is an early poem by Tolkien, entitled " Kortirion ", several versions of which can be found in The Book of Lost Tales, Volume I.

There are repeated references by Tolkien to a historic account of the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields by Jordanes.

There is an inscription in the Fëanorian characters ( Tengwar, an alphabet Tolkien has devised for High-elven ) in the first pages of every History of Middle-earth volume, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book.

There is an inscription in tengwar on the title pages of each volume of The History of Middle-earth, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book.

Fram slew the dragon Scatha the Worm, and according to some accounts was killed in dissension between the Éothéod and the Dwarves arising from the distribution of Scatha's hoard ; as a result, Tolkien writes, " There was no great love between Éothéod and the Dwarves.

There is a story written there known as the " Tale of Qorinómi " about the love between him and Urwen ( Arien ), though in the commentary it is said that Tolkien never got to writing it.

There was a revised and updated second edition in 1991, after publication of eight volumes in The History of Middle-earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien after his father's death.

There are more changes visible within the book, and it is not internally consistent, partially because even while still writing it Tolkien began rewriting earlier parts as his ideas about the world changed.

There is an inscription in the Fëanorian characters ( Tengwar, an alphabet Tolkien has devised for High-Elves ) in the first pages of every History of Middle-earth volume, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book.

There is an inscription in the Fëanorian characters ( Tengwar, an alphabet Tolkien has devised for High-Elves ) in the first pages of every History of Middle-earth volume, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book.

There is an inscription in the Fëanorian characters ( Tengwar, an alphabet Tolkien has devised for High-Elves ) in the first pages of every History of Middle-earth volume, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book.

There is no such framework in the published version of The Silmarillion ; Tolkien eventually changed the intended framework of the saga, altering its mode from tales told by Ælfwine to one based around Bilbo Baggins's Red Book translations of " Elvish lore ".

" There was a time when the Hobbit fantasies of Professor Tolkien were being taken very seriously indeed by a great many distinguished literary figures.

There are plans to erect a statue of Treebeard by Tim Tolkien, J. R. R.

There are plenty of references, both to people and events of alt. fan. pratchett, films like Star Wars, The Terminator, and Aliens, TV shows like Star Trek and The Muppet Show, books by authors like Pratchett and J. R. R. Tolkien, as well as computer games, rock songs, classical poetry and Japanese fetishes.