Posted by Rick Denney on April 20, 2003 at 23:54:55:
In Reply to: Goethe Institute/ Wagner Ring Cycle site posted by js on April 19, 2003 at 20:09:02:
It would be wrong to assume that Tolkein was influenced by Goethe. It would be correct to assume that both were influenced by Old Icelandic (as in, the language) and Old Norse mythology. Tolkein was a language professor at Oxford, with a specialty of Anglo-Saxon (i.e., stuff written 1000 or 1200 years ago when Britain and Vikings had a lot in common, and before the Norman invasion). His source literature went a lot farther back than Goethe.
Rick "thinking that Tolkein's men didn't think they were renouncing love when they claimed Sauron's ring" Denney