I'm reading a book called Tolkien's ring, which is all about ring mythology and how people thought rings could be used in witchcraft years ago but the Catholic church stole their rituals for marriage vows, changing the meaning entirely. There's loads of information I had no idea about - like the fact that Gandalf is based on Odin, I'm sure Loki, Fenrir and Thor get mentioned further on in the book. There's a whole load of Norse mythology he used and made his own mythology out of -- not stealing the work, just using his own version that he re-wrote painstakingly with a new language, new lands and an entire group of differing species. It's incredible.

:D