Gandalf and Odin?
 

You might want to join in with this thread

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=12391

Quite a bit on the Gandalf/Odin thing in there.

Thanks for the link, quite interesting indeed...especially the Sauron/Odin resemblance...I wasn't really aware of that, then again I only know little about Norse mythology, and most comes from computer games. :D

Tolkien himself called Gandalf his 'Odinic wanderer' so there is most definitely a link there, especially to the 'good' aspects of Odin! Though the stuff about Sauron showing the 'bad' aspects to Odin is built up from analysis/comparison, of course!

Some of Odin's more unpleasant aspects are also reflected in the Lost Tales-era Vala Makar, Lord of the Slain, whose gory halls in Valinor are pretty much a dead ringer for Valhalla in its more sanguinary representations- those killed in battle skip Mandos, and instead spend the afterlife alternately feasting and slaughtering.

I went and had a look at this earlier. Fascinating that Makar had a war goddess sister too. The whole section seemed to hint at aspects of 'real world' spirituality and religion including not only Valhalla but also Hell and Purgatory, all of which were eventually excised from his vision of the cosmology - although you can detect a hint of Valhalla in Theoden's beliefs about the kind of afterlife he will pass on to.

I noted a further link to the Norse mythology in that fascinating depiction of the world as a Viking ship.