Tolkien at Troynovant:
inspirations via J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973);
by, about, tangential, or quoted,
listed by Type and Title
  

Almost all of Tolkien's fiction belongs to what we'll call his Lord of the Rings / Middle-Earth series; exceptions will be noted.
  

  
The sequel to The Hobbit has now progressed as far as the end of the third chapter. But stories tend to get out of hand, and this has taken an unpremeditated turn. Mr Lewis and my youngest boy are reading it in bits as a serial. I hesitate to bother your son, though I should value his criticisms. At any rate if he would like to read it in serial form he can. My Christopher and Mr Lewis approve it enough to say that they think it is better than The Hobbit; but Rayner need not agree!

J.R.R. Tolkien to Stanley Unwin, 4 March 1938
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
edited by Humphrey Carpenter

  
"Bilbo's the word, and slaughter will ensue."

William Congreve
The Old Bachelor, 3.7  (1693)

  
[Windsor Park.]

Sir Hugh Evans:

Pray you, lock hand in hand, yourselves in order set;
And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be
To guide our measure round about the tree. —
But stay; I smell a man of middle earth.

William Shakespeare
The Merry Wives of Windsor, 5.5.74-77
  

  
The first reference to Tolkien I've been able to trace in fanzines occurred in the Summer of 1956. ...

A good example of how the Tolkien canon affected some fans was a project even wilder than South Gate in '58 [which after ten years' boosting, did materialize as the 2nd Los Angeles World Science Fiction Convention, the Solacon].

Rick Sneary and Ted Johnstone were talking a great deal in 1957 about a wild notion to turn the quest books into a movie. "It appears at first glance impractical," Ted wrote a little later, because of such problems as an estimated twelve-hour running time, a $50,0000,000 budget, and the desirability of casting such performers as Sir Alec Guinness, Jean Simmons, Michael Rennie, Tab Hunter, Anita Ekberg (no, I'm not making this up), and Danny Kaye.

Harry Warner, Jr.
A Wealth of Fable
An Informal History of Science Fiction Fandom in the 1950s  (revised edition, 1992)