Tolkien's story of Middle-Earth is too much focused on LOTR...

[Peter_20]

I've always thought Tolkien's tale is supposed to be about everything that happened in Middle-earth; the Beginning of Days in itself is deep enough on its own, and we also have the Eldar on their journey to Aman, the War of the Jewels, the curse of Túrin and his family, the downfall of Númenor, etc.
All of these stories are magnificent.
Therefore I find it sad that the mainstream audience only know of LOTR, and perhaps a handful of stuff from the end of the Second Age - and nothing more.
The fans of the movies are even worse off: they don't even have much knowledge about the small details explained in the books, it's all about Frodo, hobbits, the Ring, Gandalf, Aragorn and Sauron... and that's it!
To me, LOTR is one of the stories from Middle-earth, not the story.

It's so tragic that everything else has been completely outshadowed.
I actually feel a kind of frustration whenever I hear someone mention "the hobbits and their journey with the Ring", etc etc - they rarely know anything about the first two Ages.

I don't blame them, because most of Tolkien's work are indeed very unknown; but I still wish his "ancient" stories of Middle-earth got more attention, because they so deserve it.