Everything Tolkien

The Million Names of God. -er, Tolkien.
Tolkien | J.R.R. Tolkien | John Ronald Reuel Tolkien | J.R.R.'s son, Christopher Tolkien

J.R.R.'s own "Middle Earth" work:
The Silmarillion, the creation and early history of Middle Earth.
The Hobbit, the story of Bilbo Baggins' discovery of the One Ring, the one thing that would turn the tide of Sauron's war on Creation.
The three books of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, building on the story of The Hobbit. As a good trilogy should be, there are too many intersecting stories to do it any justice here. Suffice it to say that LotR remains an influential, if not defining, ideal in the heroic fantasy genre.

Other peoples' work:
...So influential, in fact, that there are innumerable related products capitalizing on the captivating world of Middle Earth. Arguably the most profitable is Christopher Tolkien's voluminous exploration/interpolation of his father's notes. There is the obligatory satire, Bored of the Rings. Like any sci-fi or fantasy work worth its mindshare, there is also the obligatory role-playing game (MERP), and collector card game, intriguingly named "Middle Earth".

Middle Earth seems to appeal to pop musicians; recording artists from Led Zeppelin (Misty Mountain Hop, The Battle of Evermore) to Enya (Lothlorien) have captured their own unique visions of Tolkien's world. E2 user Infinity recommends Nightfall In Middle Earth by Blind Guardian. Could it be that artists resonate with Tolkien's own artistry, or just that Middle Earth and good pop music are both groovy when you're stoned? (By which I mean "petrified", as by the gaze of Medusa, of course.)

The Powers of Middle Earth:
Eru Iluvetar | Valar | Maiar | Melkor/Morgoth | Ungoliant | Glaurung | Balrog | Gandalf/Mithrandir | Saruman | Radagast | Sauron

Lothlorien on 20 silver pieces a day.
Angband | Valinor | Mirkwood | Rivendell | Moria | Mordor | Numenor | Rohan | The Shire | Umbar | Angmar | Gondolin | Arnor

The Creatures of Middle Earth:
If Middle Earth was important to fantasy fiction, it was positively seminal to role playing games. Elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, dragons, ents, worgs, trolls, goblins and wraiths: we may owe the Norse myths for these archetypes, but we owe Tolkien for their popularity in fantasy art and literature. In keeping with the contribution of Arthurian hero stories, there are also plenty of regular humans, horses, ponies, dogs and wolves, and maybe a few extraordinary spiders and eagles.
Balrog | Mûmak | Beorn | Ent ...

Creative Linguistics:
Tolkien invented several languages for Middle-Earth; probably the best-known are the Elves' Sindarin and Quenya, but the Dwarves also used Khuzdul, and there are many others mentioned but not detailed in his works.

Tolkien Everything:
And of course, this node would be incomplete without some Everything Culture as seen through the eyes of an elf-hugger:
e2Tolkien (usergroup) | One Node to Rule Them All | The One Node | ...

More Middle Earth Miscellany:
A Elbereth Gilthoniel | Andúril | Celeborn | Galadriel | Dúnedain | Olvar | Kelvar | Gonnhirrim | Moriquendi | Cirdan | Tolkien's Languages | ...

Let us not forget Unfinished Tales, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Tolkien's non-Middle-Earth work: The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Tree and Leaf, Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo, The Father Christmas Letters, Mythopoeia (a debate-in-essay with fellow writer C.S. Lewis) and the recently-posthumously-published Roverandom. (I will only here allude to his legendary eight-page entry for the Oxford English Dictionary on the letter "e".)

Christopher Tolkien's volumes of arranged notes include: The Book of Lost Tales (parts one and two), The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-Earth, The Lost Road, The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring and Sauron Defeated.

While we're at it, let me add a gratuitous link here to Peter Jackson, New Zealand director-par-excellence (famous for Heavenly Creatures, Meet the Feebles, Dead Alive and Bad Taste) working on arguably the greatest film adaptation of the greatest story ever written. Ralph Bakshi, no mean mother himself, tried and failed.

I've been asked to make here an accounting of Tolkien's Languages, those being the Elvish Quenya and Sindarin, Adunaic, Westron, Rohirric, Khuzdul of the Dwarves, Hobbitish, the Black Speech, Druadan and Entish.

Ok, because I feel like it,

The Complete Works of Middle Earth

As written by J.R.R. Tolkien and edited by his son Christopher Tolkien

• The Hobbit
• The Lord of the Rings:
  • Vol. 1: The Fellowship of the Ring:
    • The Ring Sets Out
    • The Ring Goes South
  • Vol. 2: The Two Towers
    • The Treason of Isengard
    • The Ring Goes East
  • Vol. 3: The Return of the King, including Appendices
    • The War of the Ring
    • The End of the Third Age
• The Sillmarilion
• The History of Middle Earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien:
  • The Book of Lost Tales vol. 1 & 2
  • The Lays of Beleriand
  • The Shaping of Middle Earth
  • The Lost Road (and other writings)
  • Return of the Shadow: The History of the War of the Ring, Part 1
  • The Treason of Isenguard: Part 2
  • The War of the Ring: Part 3
  • Sauron Defeated
  • Morgoth's Ring
  • The War of the Jewels
  • The Peoples of Middle Earth
• The Adventures of Tom Bombadil