[Formendacil]

The Hobbit

My reasoning is that the Silmarillion is quite possibly the better known work. We have dozens of threads all carefully going over all the little quirks and queries of the book, but The Hobbit seems a little neglected. We tend- or I tend- to think of it as more of a frivoulous read, not one that contains as much lore.

But really, it does. There are whole sections of Middle-Earth history that are glimpsed primarily through The Hobbit, and there are many little snipets pertaining to the greater history that are among the few canonical statements about it.

And, barring those readers who accept ONLY the Lord of the Rings as canonical, The Hobbit is the only definitive canonical source of any decent size pertaining to Middle-Earth that can be accepted as such close to definitely, except for the Lord of the Rings itself. It is the only other major work by the Professor that was published in his lifetime, according to his specs, that deals with Middle-Earth.