: A lot of Dwarf names come from Norse mythology (although
: I'm not sure whether Tolkein reused them in LOTR),
: such as Ivaldi, who made Sif's golden hair, as well as
: Odin's spear and the magical ship Skidbladnir, and his
: rivals Brokk and Eitri, who made Mjollnir, as well as
: Freya's golden boar and a ring from which eight other
: rings would drop every ninth night (hmm, the nine
: rings. I hadn't thought of that connection before.)
Tolkien, for all that I love about him, pretty much just ripped off the Norse. The mythology is similar (hell, midgard/middle-earth is really blatant!), lots of names are taken, and even the Elven language Quenyi is based off of Norse.
