I was doing some thinking - dangerous, I know [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]
But anyways, I was thinking, could Tolkien have taken names from Catholic Saints for characters, especially the Valar and Maiar? What about personality? I see Varda as a Mary type. Varda is called the Queen of the Star and Mary is called Queen of Heaven.
I did find one interesting one - Meriadoc
Maybe someone here know more about Catholicism than I do.