[CSteefel]

I read LOTR back in 1965. Discovered the books somehow and then disappeared into my grandfather's bomb shelter (which he built in the nuclear war scare in the earliest 1960s, despite being located in southern Minnesota) for 2-3 days for non-stop reading.

Beyond that, the legend of the Elder Days only came through in the stories from Gandalf, the song of Luthien and Beren on the approach to Weathertop, and then in Rivendell. But I cannot say I remember absorbing all of the Legendarium there. Most of the additional information came from the Appendices of course...