Let me add just one interesting thought that is pointed out in the Reader's Companion: The "squint-eyed ill-favoured fellow" says, 'If room isn't found for them, they'll find it for themselves.' This statement is eerily similar to the German idea of Lebensraum ('living space'), which was one of the reasons for the Second World War. We don't know, of course, where people felt their country was overly crowded in Middle-earth, but someone must have felt the need to spread out and take over other areas.
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
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