Tolkien literally based his work off Norse, Celtic, and Germany mythology and spoke himself at length how he did so.

That and he crossed the mythology of Christian angles as noble warriors of good, with the Norse Alfar, and the Celte Fae, which he anglicized as "elves," which is the origin of the modern "fantasy" trope of elves, like from DnD and World of Warcraft comes from. And it was only much later, hippy writers mostly in the 1970's who wrote elves into tree hugging hippies of faffery and stupidity and weakness. Tolkien's elves in particular were ferocious and terrifying, the kind of people who fought armies of demons, each demon so powerful they could kill scores and scores of humans, all before before lunch because it was tuesday they were bored.

It didn't hurt that ancient norse actually associated the Alfar with Vahalla and their gods, so there is that too.

Though I would caution from drawing any direct lines between anything since the medieval Christians basically muddied all the understanding of ancient Norse lore, then tried to fold it into Christianity to help "sell" it to the norse and germanic peoples. And what little is known is known though the eyes of christians because the ancient Norse and Anglo-Saxons were illiterate peoples who kept oral histories, all of which were completely lost as those people became Christian and literally forgot their own history. Norse historians have only the Islandic Sagas which were carefully recorded from interviews of skalds by a Christian priest in Iceland, something others in North Europe didn't bother to do. But you have to remember this is Iceland, a far, far flung nordic colony far removed from Norway, Denmark and Sweden by both distance, and centuries when the Sagas were recorded.

And WW1 and his personal experience fighting it was also a great deal of the inspiration for the War of the Ring in the book, in particular Frodo was his own avatar he wrote into the story, each of the hobbits one of his English country bumpkin friends, all who died in the war actually.

Tolkien literally based his work off Norse, Celtic, and Germany mythology and spoke himself at length how he did so.

That and he crossed the mythology of Christian angles as noble warriors of good, with the Norse Alfar, and the Celte Fae, which he anglicized as "elves," which is the origin of the modern "fantasy" trope of elves, like from DnD and World of Warcraft comes from. And it was only much later, hippy writers mostly in the 1970's who wrote elves into tree hugging hippies of faffery and stupidity and weakness. Tolkien's elves in particular were ferocious and terrifying, the kind of people who fought armies of demons, each demon so powerful they could kill scores and scores of humans, all before before lunch because it was tuesday they were bored.

It didn't hurt that ancient norse actually associated the Alfar with Vahalla and their gods, so there is that too.

Though I would caution from drawing any direct lines between anything since the medieval Christians basically muddied all the understanding of ancient Norse lore, then tried to fold it into Christianity to help "sell" it to the norse and germanic peoples. And what little is known is known though the eyes of christians because the ancient Norse and Anglo-Saxons were illiterate peoples who kept oral histories, all of which were completely lost as those people became Christian and literally forgot their own history. Norse historians have only the Islandic Sagas which were carefully recorded from interviews of skalds by a Christian priest in Iceland, something others in North Europe didn't bother to do.

And WW1 and his personal experience fighting it was also a great deal of the inspiration for the War of the Ring in the book, in particular Frodo was his own avatar he wrote into the story, each of the hobbits one of his English country bumpkin friends, all who died in the war actually.

Tolkien literally based his work off Norse, Celtic, and Germany mythology and spoke himself at length how he did so.

That and he crossed the mythology of Christian angles as noble warriors of good, with the Norse Alfar, and the Celte Fae, which he anglicized as "elves," which is the origin of the modern "fantasy" trope of elves, like from DnD and World of Warcraft comes from. And it was only much later, hippy writers mostly in the 1970's who wrote elves into tree hugging hippies of faffery and stupidity and weakness. Tolkien's elves in particular were ferocious and terrifying, the kind of people who fought armies of demons, each demon so powerful they could kill scores and scores of humans, all before before lunch because it was tuesday they were bored.

It didn't hurt that ancient norse actually associated the Alfar with Vahalla and their gods, so there is that too.

And WW1 and his personal experience fighting it was also a great deal of the inspiration for the War of the Ring in the book, in particular Frodo was his own avatar he wrote into the story, each of the hobbits one of his English country bumpkin friends, all who died in the war actually.