Essex has a good point with Harry Potter, what about all that He Who Must Not Be Named, giant spiders, Dumbledore/Gandalf wannabe, and it goes ever on...
Stephen Donaldson did exactly the same thing in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant ( he even went as far as to have a Berek half-hand!). Have a look at these:
http://www.stephenrdonaldson.com/
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/au..._Donaldson.htm
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/farp/myths/myth.html
http://www.authorsontheweb.com/featu...influences.asp
I hope some of that was helpfull. I'm sure there's another thread similar to this one......Can't find it though, sorry.
http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthr...son#post382865 Look at post #446 that might help too.