Which Myths and Stories influenced LotR?

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by alatar

And completely astounding to the kids, and mostly unintelligeable, was something earlier about a creature called a jabberwock.

I now have one more thing to fix in my son's brain.

I'd just run with it... like the bored history teacher convinced his students never listened who would slip in the odd gem about how Henry VIII invented the sport of hammer throwing while making a rabbit hutch for his daughter... after all seeing how Hollywood treats even relatively recent history you have a lot of tide to hold back

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

I'd just run with it... like the bored history teacher convinced his students never listened who would slip in the odd gem about how Henry VIII invented the sport of hammer throwing while making a rabbit hutch for his daughter...

The kids soon realized that nothing 'fun' was about to happen when one of the staff started speaking, and so they quickly tuned the speakers out. Merlin, doing magic tricks to show that the power of Morgoth was all illusion, was talking as well, and so was tuned out. My son, catching a brief glance towards the wizard, lit up when it dawned on him that this wasn't just more blather and that there were some cool tricks being performed.

Poor Merlin, when finished, said to the scouts, "Thank you for your indifference." They just walked away, probably not even hearing what he said.

[Mithalwen]

It sounds like a tough gig....

[Galadriel55]

Tolkien included a lot of the mythology of Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, and probably some of the surrounding countries. However, the only mythology that I know relatively well is the greek one. I find that Tulkas is very similar to Ares, the god of war - although Tulkas is still very different, he has a bit of Ares in him.

And don't you think that Beren's story is similar to Herculese's? Both are sent by kings on a hopeless quest to get rid of them...