Of Gondolin

Gondolin is a hidden city in the mountains, near the Pass of Anach and Dorthonion. It is just above Beleriand (the main country in The Silmarillion). Towards the end of Morgoth's reign, it is discovered, and Morgoth attacks and destroys the city. Tuor, a man, goes to Gondolin during the fall and saves as many of the people as he can. So Gondolin, though a magnificent city, the story ends in a sad way, which is the end of one of the most magnificent cities in the history of Middle Earth.

Valar

The creators of Middle Earth are the Valar. They are the gods of Middle Earth. They hold council and they judge the people; but when Morgoth takes over Middle Earth, they send in a massive army out of nowhere, and wipe out Morgoth's men. So they saved Middle Earth, but never appear in the Lord of the Rings.

From Ungoliant to Shelob (A History of Giant Spiders)

Ungoliant is the first spider you meet in the entire Middle Earth series. She is working under Melchor, but after destroying town and devouring anything she sees. She finishes her job for him, and wants a reward, but Melchor is afraid of her, but he reluctantly holds takes a Silmaril in his hand, but she eats it, and it drives her mad (I don't remember how he gets it back :/). Then there are the smaller spiders in The Hobbit. They are not as terrifying to read about, but to a hobbit and 13 dwarves, several of those spiders are quite frightening. They capture the heroes, but they miss Bilbo. He frees his companions and holds off the spiders with Sting. The last spider is Shelob, the terror at Cirith Ungol (the pass). She is not quite as big as Ungoliant, but almost as scary (definatly for Sam and Frodo). She guards the pass into Mordor and kills all who try to enter Mordor. Frodo gets captured, so Sam comes in to save him. He uses Sting to stab her belly. What happens after that, no one knows. We know Shelob was wounded, and we know she lived, but there is no other history about her.

The Real World

An interesting connection between Middle Earth and Earth is the fact that J.R.R Tolkien gave only the bad peoples of Middle Earth machines because he hated tanks when he was in World War One. He loosely based (in my opinion) Sauron and Morgoth on Hitler, I say this because of the worldview that these two have.

Stuff

The sons of Feanor from the Silmarillion, are the ones who are after Melchor (aka. Morgoth) because he stole the Silmarils, the brightest jewels in Middle Earth, they were made by Feanor, and his sons want them back, so they can hold the worlds light, and so it will get back in the right hands. Beren, a man, steals one, and it ends up with a king, the other drives Maedhros to his death, and the death of the Silmaril, and the other, his brother throws another in the ocean, and so in time they all get lost, and their legend lived on, but never are the Silmarils found, or even seen by another man or elf or dwarf again.