[The Might]

Now, I know Christopher Paolini officially stated that both LotR and Star Wars were ag reat source of inspiration for him and considering his age I don't wonder that a lot is simply Tolkien's thoughts in a different but still very similar form.
And I personally don't hold it against him, if I were to write a fantasy book right now I would probably do something like that.
This is however also why I don't read his books. I mean, they may well be nice, but simply the fact that it's just LotR in another form with basically the same themes (that old guy as a Gandalf-like figure showing the young hero the way and all that).

Now, JKR...I quite doubt it. Names can well be coincidences and even if she took Longbottom so what? That's practically nothing. And giant spiders have been there for longer, I can recall some myths evisting in Japan about some giant spiders.
It can well be she used the books as a source of inspiration but I really can't see that many parallels, except of course again the Ganfalf-Frodo-like relationship between Dumbledore and Harry.

WoW...no comment on that. As far as WoW lore stuff is concerned I'm not really interested and I don't wonder they used the name like that.
I simply find the game a bad joke considering how Elves and Dwarves and all that are depicted there.