Apparently he took pieces of words from Finnish and Old English, and combined them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisweek/story/0,12977,1103955,00.html

He knew what he was doing, being a professor of philology, i think. Ive recently read a prose translation of beowulf, and it reads very like tolkiens work. And if you look at the history, weapons, armour, social norms etc of the anglo saxons, then you can see what he took a lot of things from, especially the riders of Rohan. he even pinched the names.

Finland lent more than just its language to the The Lord of the Rings, it was also influenced by the Kalevala, Finland's national epic.

Tolkien did use Beowulf as great inspiration. Have any of you read Beowulf and taken note of all of the sentences including "ring-giver."

I often think it's that single phrase which inspired Tolkien.

One of the major ways of holding society together, at least the warrior part, was of the king giving gifts to followers who did well in war etc. There were also swords with ring hilts, ie a small ring attached to the hilt, presumably for swearing oaths on.
a quick google suggests this page which looks ok as an intro to society:
http://www.millennia.demon.co.uk/ravens/context.htm

and on swords:
http://www.regia.org/sword.htm
"Some swords also had a ring attached to the upper guard, that to begin with was a true ring, but later became bastardised into a vestigial ring such as that on the Sutton Hoo sword. Their purpose is unclear, although they may have represented some special honour bestowed on the sword's owner."

Regia anglorum is a well established english reenacting group, and i think they know what theyre talking about.

As for scandinavian infulence, that was obvioous, what with the trees in the silmarillion etc, but I need to get a good translation of scandinavian myth and legend. All I have at the moment is a large book of much of the Icelandic sagas. CAn anyone recommend anything?

Originally posted by guthrie


As for scandinavian infulence, that was obvioous, what with the trees in the silmarillion etc, but I need to get a good translation of scandinavian myth and legend. All I have at the moment is a large book of much of the Icelandic sagas. CAn anyone recommend anything?

Here's synopis of the Kalevala.

http://www.edj.net/mc2012/fiftyrunos.htm

You should be able to get an English translation of the entire text.