<Li> Shelob, a giant spider who dwells in the passes above Minas Morgul </Li> <Li> Durin's Bane, a Balrog dwelling beneath the Mines of Moria </Li> <P> The Lord of the Rings started as a sequel to J.R.R. Tolkien's work The Hobbit, published in 1937 . The popularity of The Hobbit had led George Allen & Unwin, the publishers, to request a sequel . Tolkien warned them that he wrote quite slowly, and responded with several stories he had already developed . Having rejected his contemporary drafts for The Silmarillion, putting on hold Roverandom, and accepting Farmer Giles of Ham, Allen & Unwin thought more stories about hobbits would be popular . So at the age of 45, Tolkien began writing the story that would become The Lord of the Rings . The story would not be finished until 12 years later, in 1949, and would not be fully published until 1955, when Tolkien was 63 years old . </P> <P> Persuaded by his publishers, he started "a new Hobbit" in December 1937 . After several false starts, the story of the One Ring emerged . The idea for the first chapter ("A Long - Expected Party") arrived fully formed, although the reasons behind Bilbo's disappearance, the significance of the Ring, and the title The Lord of the Rings did not arrive until the spring of 1938 . Originally, he planned to write a story in which Bilbo had used up all his treasure and was looking for another adventure to gain more; however, he remembered the Ring and its powers and thought that would be a better focus for the new work . As the story progressed, he also brought in elements from' The Silmarillion' mythology . </P>

Which comes first the hobbit or lord of the rings