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Mythological and historical influences
Non-Christian religious motifs also had strong influences in Tolkien's Middle-earth. His Ainur, a race of angelic beings who are responsible for
conceptualising the world, includes the
Valar, the pantheon of "gods" who are responsible for the maintenance of everything from skies and seas to dreams and doom, and their servants, the
Maiar. The concept of the Valar echoes Greek and Norse mythologies, although the Ainur and
the world itself are all creations of a monotheistic deity —
Ilúvatar or Eru, "The One". As the external practice of Middle-earth religion is downplayed in
The Lord of the Rings, explicit information about them is only given in the different versions of
Silmarillion material. However, there remain allusions to this aspect of Tolkien's writings, including "the Great Enemy" who was Sauron's master and "Elbereth, Queen of Stars" (
Morgoth and
Varda respectively, two of the Valar) in the main text, the "Authorities" (referring to the Valar, literally
Powers) in the Prologue, and "the One" in Appendix A. Other non-Christian mythological or folkloric elements can be seen, including other sentient non-humans (Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits and Ents), a "Green Man" (
Tom Bombadil), and spirits or ghosts (
Barrow-wights,
Oathbreakers).
Tolkien's Elves and Dwarves are by and large based on
Norse and related
Germanic mythologies[21][22] and possibly
Celtic Mythology.
[23] Names such as "Gandalf", "Gimli" and "Middle-earth" are directly derived from Norse mythology.
Gandalf, which means "wand elf" or "magic elf" in
Old Norse, appears in the "Catalogue of Dwarves" section of
Völuspá, a poem collected in the
Poetic Edda.
[24] The figure of Gandalf is particularly influenced by the Germanic deity
Odin[25] in his incarnation as "The Wanderer", an old man with one eye, a long white beard, a wide brimmed hat, and a staff; Tolkien stated that he thought of Gandalf as an "Odinic wanderer" in a letter of 1946, nearly a decade after the character was invented.
[20] Specific influences include the Anglo-Saxon poem
Beowulf.
[26]
Tolkien based the people of Rohan, the
Rohirrim, on the historical
Anglo-Saxons, giving them Anglo-Saxon names, customs, and poetry.
[27] Aside: this reference explains how to pronounce Rohirric names, and suggests Tolkien may not have provided guidance, as he did for Elvish names, because he assumed readers would be familiar with Anglo-Saxon.
Tolkien may have also borrowed elements from the
Völsunga saga, the Old Norse basis of the later German
Nibelungenlied and
Richard Wagner's opera series,
Der Ring des Nibelungen, also called the Ring Cycle — specifically a magical golden ring and a broken sword which is reforged. In the
Völsungasaga, these items are respectively
Andvarinaut and
Gram, and very broadly correspond to the
One Ring and
Narsil/Andúril.
Finnish mythology and more specifically the Finnish national epic
Kalevala were also acknowledged by Tolkien as an influence on Middle-earth.
[28] In a similar manner to
The Lord of the Rings, the
Kalevala centres around a magical item of great power, the
Sampo, which bestows great fortune on its owner, but never makes its exact nature clear. Like the One Ring, the Sampo is fought over by forces of good and evil, and is ultimately lost to the world as it is destroyed towards the end of the story. In another parallel, the latter work's wizard character
Väinämöinen also has many similarities to Gandalf in his immortal origins and wise nature, and both works end with their respective wizard departing on a ship to lands beyond the mortal world. Tolkien also based elements of his
Elvish language Quenya on
Finnish.
[29]