2) ever notice how the hobbits have clocks? Fireworks exist in Middle Earth but we don't know if hobbits ever make them or if they're purely a Gandalf thing. So LotR ends with Saruman sitting on clockwork tech and gunpowder - either he realizes it or he's so in an older magic/preindustrial mindset to figure it out *yet*. He's a Maiar so he's got time. Basically the Scouring of the Shire has the hobbits saving the entire world again, and they don't know they're doing it.