Tolkien and the classical world
J. R. R. Tolkien derived the characters, stories, places, and languages of Middle-earth from many sources, especially medieval ones. Tolkien and the classical world have been linked by scholars, and by Tolkien himself. The suggested influences include the pervasive classical themes of divine intervention and decline and fall in Middle-earth; the splendour of the Atlantis-like lost island kingdom of Númenor; the Troy-like fall of Gondolin; the Rome-like stone city of Minas Tirith in Gondor; magical rings with parallels to the One Ring; and the echoes of the tale of Lúthien and Beren with the myth of Orpheus descending to the underworld. Other possible connections have been suggested by scholars.
In Roman legend, Aeneas escapes the ruin of Troy, while in Tolkien's legendarium, Elendil escapes Númenor. Painting Aeneas Flees Burning Troy by Federico Barocci, 1598
Decline and fall: the shattered ruins of the Roman city at Baalbek
Like the pantheon of Greek gods, Tolkien's Valar behave as a group, and act in Middle-earth through what appears as luck, or fate.
Tolkien's fire-serpents are paralleled by Virgil's great serpents that kill the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons in the fall of Troy.
Influences on J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy books on Middle-earth, especially The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, drew on a wide array of influences including language, Christianity, mythology, archaeology, ancient and modern literature, and personal experience. He was inspired primarily by his profession, philology; his work centred on the study of Old English literature, especially Beowulf, and he acknowledged its importance to his writings.
Beowulf's eotenas [ond] ylfe [ond] orcneas, "ogres [and] elves [and] devil-corpses" helped to inspire Tolkien to create orcs, Elves, and other races.
Tolkien visited the temple of Nodens at a place called "Dwarf's Hill" and translated an inscription with a curse upon a ring. It may have inspired his dwarves, Mines of Moria, rings, and Celebrimbor "Silver-Hand", an Elven-smith who contributed to Moria's construction.
William Morris's Sigurd the Volsung told (in this extract from page 389) of Dwarf-Rings and swords carried by dead kings. Tolkien read Morris and Magnússon's translation of the Völsunga Saga as a student.
Tolkien wrote that he thought of Gandalf as an "Odinic Wanderer". Odin, the wanderer by Georg von Rosen, 1886