A portion of the continuing appeal of The Lord of the Rings trilogy undoubtedly lies in its originality. Nonetheless, Tolkien studied language, and much of what he wrote about in The Fellowship of the Ring can be traced to his linguistic studies. He translated numerous Middle English poems, including "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "Pearl" into modern English, and much of the quest theme and his beliefs about the cyclical renewal of life can be found in these early works as well as in Tolkien's fiction. A number of his characters' names are taken directly from the Eddie poem "Voluspa"— Gandalf's is one of them. Certain references in his work also remind the reader of the epic Beowulf, a poem that Tolkien is known to have studied and written upon at some.....
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