> 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.

Incorrect, Tolkien's original idea was not to 'create a uniquely British fantasy history', the fantasy history was merely a side project. Tolkien, upon hearing the beauty of the Finnish language decided to make one equally beautiful. He created his fantasy realm merely as a basis for his two elven languages (damn good basis).