[Pitchwife]

I wouldn't say derived, Marhwini, maybe rather inspired, and not in such a way that you can always map ME peoples on real world civilisations 1:1. In some cases more than one real world ingredient goes into Tolkien's inventions, e.g. while the Rohirric language in the book is clearly Old English the real Angle-Saxons never had a cavalry, and Tolkien says in Appendix E of LotR that we shouldn't assume the material culture of Rohan to resemble that of the Angle-Saxons. The question you discuss here is interesting and would IMO certainly merit its own thread.

On topic, I find myself wondering about the characters in LotR that only have one or two lines - people like Ceorl, Hirgon, Ingold: what were their lives like, did they have families, how did those who survived the war fare in the Fourth Age?

Of the minor characters that were more developped I'd like to mention
- Beregond, an example of the common Men of Gondor at their finest,
- Ioreth, a realistic female character who is neither young nor beautiful nor powerful but thoroughly likable,
- Nellas, the elven girl who overcame her shyness to bear witness in Thingol's court for a man who had forgotten she even existed.

But I think my all-time favourite minor character has to be the old man who sat on the threshold of the Paths of the Dead and died after telling Brego and Baldor "The way is shut." That passage always gives me shivers.