Backgroundmusic for The Hobbit :
GRIEG "In the hall of the mountain king"
TOLKIEN's REMEMBRANCE OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR :
"...Now Goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted.
...It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines
that have since troubled the world,
especially the ingenious devices
for killing large numbers of people at once,
for wheels and engines
and explosions
always delighted them..." (p.59).
TOLKIEN READ SOPHOCLES' TRAGEDY "OIDIPUS" :
"Gollum was dreadfully disappointed;
but Bilbo asked another riddle as quick as ever he could,
so that Gollum had to get back into his boat to think.
No-legs lay on one-leg, two-legs sat near on three legs, four-legs got some. ...
He knew, of course,
that the riddle-game was sacred
and
of immense antiquity..."(the riddle of the sfinx). (p.73)
TOLKIEN READ THE STORY OF SNOWWHITE IN "KINDERMÄRCHEN" by GRIMM :
"Tools were to be found in plenty that miners and quarriers and builders of old had used;
and at such work the dwarves were still very skilled..." (p.237)