I know there are a fair number of players who focus primarily on gameplay and couldn't care less about lore, but for anyone else interested in Middle Earth, I would recommend checking out the Tolkien Professor if you haven't already. He is a very knowledgeable Tolkien scholar whose discussions are both fun and informative. His podcasts include talks of The Hobbit and other Tolkien works (including the legendary Silmarillion Seminar!).

One of his current projects is Exploring the Lord of the Rings, which is a weekly course going very closely through the Lord of the Rings (we've been at it about a year, and we've just now reached the point of Tom Bombadil rescuing the hobbits from the barrow). Through Twitch and Discord, not only is this a rather informative class, but people can also ask questions of the Professor and offer their own insights. Each class also includes a "field trip" within Lord of the Rings Online to examine their adaptation of Tolkien's world.

Does anyone else have any favorite sources of lore? And speaking of being off-topic, just when are we going to get a Scouring of the Shire adventure pack so we can actually finish up the story?

I'm pretty ignorant about the LOTR lore but thanks for your information. When I need any lore information I go to a french encyclopedia ( http://www.tolkiendil.com/bienvenue) or ask to friends of mine who know perfectly the books ^^.

We will have a Scouring of the Shire POD someday, but it will probably be fan-made since there is no sign of FFG.

I would add the source books for The One Ring RPG by Cubicle 7. These books do an awesome job of detailing out what we know about specific parts of Middle-earth and they're not afraid to pencil in the details. They're also beautifully illustrated, which is a big plus.