Hate to say this, but Tolkien's Wormtongue was not the first. There was a 10th century Norse saga hero, Gunnlaugr Ormstunga (ie Wormtongue) he a poet at the court of the Norwegian king and well known for his cunning. Tolkien as an expert of that period would certainly have known about him...
Not sayiing Tolkien is a plagiarist, but he was inspired by a certain period of literature and history, and he makes use of time-honoured literary devices, just as Rowling does. I think the parallels drawn between the two authors are mostly quite spurious ones, due to the fact that they both happened to be made into movies at the same time.
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Out went the candle, and we were left darkling
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