Biggest surprize link to LOTR?

[Cirdan]

For me it had to be the third Elven ring which Gandalf posessed. It must have been the key to defeating the Balrog. I have read the LOTR several times and I remember no memtion of it.

There was a great deal of info in the Silmarillion. Just the geography was challenging. I hope someone takes up the task of creating a map of the Second Age duriong the reign of the Numenorean Kings. I have found several excellent repos of the original map. I still have the Silmarillion map fold out even though my copy is 25 years old. I stilil find it lacking in some parts of the story.