Tolkien told his children many stories, which may have been a part of some of the books he wrote. He got the idea for the hobbit from a students term paper. While grading the students paper, Tolkien noticed that he had left a page blank. Here he scribbled the words: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." J. R. R. began to research hobbits. This was one of the tales he told his young children.

Tolkien also worked on a book called The Silmarillion, which he originally called Quenta Silmarillion. He wrote most of this book while in the trenches of World War I. His writings were rejected at first. After writing the Hobbit, he was asked to write a sequel. He was very disappointed at the failure of The Silmarillion, but went ahead and began working on "The New Hobbit." The Silmarillion was finally published four years after Tolkien's death. It took Tolkien over 12 years to complete his work on the Lord of the Rings, which consists of three stories. When he finished the books his was 60 years old. Since then, the Lord of the Rings has been the second most read book of the 20th century, right after the bible.

Cults When the Lord of the Rings began to gain much popularity, Tolkien began to have more and more problems with his fans. They would come to look at his house and call him at 3:00 in the morning asking what happened to Frodo at the end of the Lord of the Rings series. Tolkien was forced to to change his address and take his phone number out of all directories. "By 1968 The Lord of the Rings had almost become the Bible of the "Alternative Society"." -Quote by David Doughan from The Tolkien Society

Gandalf and the Balrog in Mordor