[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

That's another good example, although I suspect that Menelaus and Odysseus battling Proteus are variations on the same myth.

This thread serves very well as a reminder that one should look further than the legends of the ancient North for Tolkien's inspirations. He received an excellent Classical education at King Edward's School in Birmingham, and he originally read Classics at Oxford before switching to a course that better suited his inclinations. Therefore these legends would have been, to paraphrase Henry V, as familiar in his mouth as household words.

It does intrigue me, O Master of Doom, that Menelaus managed to keep hold of running water. Perhaps the Achaeans had particularly watertight hands: timete Danaos si aquam ferentes.