LOTR and Hobbit Novels Database
The Fellowship of the Ring
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"The riches he had brought back from his travels had now become a local legend, and it was popularly believed, whatever the old folk might say, that the Hill at Bag End was full of tunnels of treasure." (p.21)
Commentary
The Hobbits evidently have great skill in tunneling and building, if so many (remember, Hobbits are stated to dig a lot) believe that a hill "full" of tunnels is plausible.
The Return of the King
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"The Nazgûl came again, and as their Dark Lord now grew and put forth his strength, so their voices, which uttered only his will and his malice, were filled with evil and horror. Ever they circled above the City, like vultures that expect their fill of doomed men's flesh. Out of sight and shot they flew, and yet were ever present, and their deadly voices rent the air. More unbearable they became, not less, at each new cry. At length even the stout-hearted would fling themselves to the ground as the hidden menace passed over them, or or they would stand, letting their weapons fall from nerveless hands while in their minds a blackness came, and they thought no more of war; but only of hiding and of crawling, and of death." (p.805)
Commentary
The Nazgûl's flying steeds can fly high enough to be invisible to the naked eye. quiet flier on StackExchange states that a drone with a 2-meter wingspan can be controlled from the ground at an altitude of over one kilometer.
"And the prince went from his horse, and knelt by the bier in honor of the king and his great onset...
'Men of Rohan!' he cried. 'Are there no leeches among you? She [Éowyn] is hurt, to the death maybe, but I deem she yet lives.' And he held the bright-burnished vambrace that was on his arm before her cold lips, and behold! a little mist was laid on it hardly to be seen." (p.827)
This is sometimes taken to mean that Tolkien imagined the Gondorians wearing full plate armor. This is obviously absurd: a) leather vambraces predate metal ones and will show mist just fine, and b) even wearing steel vambraces does not make you a late Medieval knight in full plate. Michael Martinez argues convincingly that Imrahil was wearing maille.
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"Sam, eager to see more, went now and joined the guards. He scrambled a little way up into one of the larger of the bay-trees. For a moment he caught a glimpse of swarthy men in red running down the slope some way off with green-clad warriors leaping after them, hewing them down as they fled. Arrows were thick in the air. Then suddenly straight over the rim of their sheltering bank, a man fell, crashing through the slender trees, nearly on top of them. He came to rest in the fern a few feet away, face downward, green arrow-feathers sticking from his neck below a golden collar. His scarlet robes were tattered, his corslet of overlapping brazen plates was rent and hewn, his black plaits of hair braided with gold were drenched with blood. His brown hand still clutched the hilt of a broken sword." (p.646)
Commentary
The Gondorian rangers seem to be experts in ambush tactics. They masterly slaughter many Haradrim.
The feathers on the Gondor arrows may be from a European green woodpecker, Picus viridis. It's green and comes from the approximate area of Gondor (assuming a literal "prehistoric earth" interpretation of Arda).
"corslet of overlapping brazen plates" likely refers to a scale-maille coat. I conclude this for the following reasons: a) a breastplate made of large, solid, bronze plates is not likely to be "rent and hewn" by steel swords so quickly, and b) Tolkien elsewhere appears to have envisioned his characters wearing maille for the most part, with a few instances of scale-maille and maybe light plate (see commentary below on RotK, p.827).
The Two Towers
