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.

Maedhras vs Beren

One major similarity between Maedhros (Feanor's son) and Beren. Maedhros is ignorant and goes out on a parlay, which is actually and ambush. Morgoth captures him, attaches a chain to his wrist, and leaves him hanging over a cliff. A friend hears him singing, and risks his life to rescue him. He can only free him by cutting off his hand. Beren is on a quest to steal a Silmaril from Morgoth. He gets in and takes one, but he meets the largest wolf (who killed Huan). He shows the wolf the Silmaril out of pride, as if saying, "I won, you failed." The wolf bites off Beren's hand, swallowing the Silmaril. Even though their tales are quite different, they both end up with one hand.

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.

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.

Huan

Huan is a dog from the Silmarillion, who can only be killed by the biggest wolf to ever live. He also gets to talk three times in his life. So he understands what people say, and he has amazing senses (i.e. smell, sight, etc.). He is Beren and Luthien's companion. He goes with them on their adventures, and his life ends after fighting a wolf fed by Morgoth himself, not just fed with food, but he is fed with malace and the like. The two have a tremendous battle, but Huan ends up dying, because it was the biggest wolf who ever lived. He uses his last time talking while he is dying. His story may not be a happy story, but it is a story of love and loyalty.