A wonderful post A_Brandybuck, Beowulf was definately an influence on Tolkien, and a good job explaining the Edda. Since Tolkien mentions using these sources he definately intended to use them for a purpose.
A wonderful post. There was this thread that contained a website to look at all the mythologies of Europe, and one was a Baltic myth about the battle of a "good wizard" and "wicked wizard." Unfortunately, I can't find that thread, or can't remember the website. It was a handy website that went in depth to the mythologies of Europe (including Beowulf, King Arthur...etc). I will have to search for the thread to find it again.