Inziladun
Yes it could be coincidence. Or it could be a layering of deeper mythology. As promised. Ms. Seth's latest essay offers more 'coincidental links':
https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpres...lorful-pair-4/
(viii) The miller and the farmer from Sarehole – being named as Ogres by the Tolkien boys – and the miller being covered in bone-dust.
(ix) Farmer Magott having etymological links to 'Goemagot' – a British Giant – pointed out by M. Hooker
(x) Farmer Maggot being cast with an ogre-like personality in an early draft per M. Hooker.
(xi) The name Bamfurlong – having etymological linkage to a long field of beanstalks – perhaps with the intention of representing one tangled-up giant one.
Eleven is kind of getting up there for the whole affair being pure coincidence. Still – as in all these matters – when it's not clearly spelled out by Tolkien – it's always conjectural. In this case though, I hark back to one of Tolkien's comments per
Letter #180:
"Having set myself a task, ... being precisely to restore to the English an epic tradition and present them with a mythology of their own ...”.
I have to wonder which
“epic tradition” and what exactly did he want to
“restore”? Did he mean Arthurian myth – which are not entirely native English stories?
I'm not so sure why the tale of the Beanstalk and 'Jack' – as Ms. Seth states being
“a quintessential part of traditional English folklore” - would have been excluded from
LotR, especially as so much other myth/folklore from our world wasn't!