I make Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption Mods and I also have a really cool YouTube channel called Manda-LORE. I Like Star Wars (Old EU exclusivley), Love Lord of the Rings, and Warhammer 40,000 is pretty neat as well.
I found this wonderful little video on youtube that delves into the Valar who are kind of like the Norse gods in J.R.R Tolkien's mythology.
enjoy
Now I wish MERP was simply set during the First or Second Age to avoid copyright problems. Although at the same time it would have meant that the player would have ended up powerless when compared to most of the NPCs.
Also I didn't know you loved LotR this much...
oh yeah, my cousin showed me Peter Jackson's films in middle school, then i read the hobbit my freshman year of highschcool. i really liked it so i bought the LOTR trilogy, The Silmarillion and the unfinished tales.