I don't see the resemblance (besides glancing ones) between Beowulf and LOTR. The heroes are completely different, the situations and enemies are polar, and the execution (epic poem vs. epic prose) is divergent. One could make the case that Tolkien was influenced by Beowulf, since he's the first scholar not to take it literally, but then, Beowulf is the basis for many of English's traditions. Somewhere I read that Tolkien's original idea for the books was to create a uniquely British fantasy history, seeing as most of their culture is imported, but instead created a whole new genre of fiction.