Grishnakh and Ugluk: Technically not minor characters, but they only really appeared in one chapter. It at first seems like they are just a very annoying hindrance, separating Merry and Pippin from the dwarf/king/elf trio, but in fact they are rather crucial doing good. Obviously it was unintentional, but if they hadn't taken Merry and Pippin to the eaves of Fangorn and then, in the resulting fray, had they not fleed from orcs and horsemen into the forest itself, they never would've met Treebeard, no march of the ents, no fall of Isengard.
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"What mortal feels not awe/Nor trembles at our name,
Hearing our fate-appointed power sublime/Fixed by the eternal law.
For old our office, and our fame,"
-Aeschylus, Song of the Furies
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