Dragons vs. Balrogs?

[obloquy]

Tolkien merely changed what he called the Noldor because the meaning of "gnomes" had become confused. They're still Gnomes, according to what Tolkien originally intended by that name.

By independent, do you mean that it stands alone, or that it is entirely divorced or autonomous from any heritage, or something else?

I mean that apart from borrowing certain features of traditional folklore and mythology, Middle-earth is unconnected to those traditions. In other words, there are dragons, but there is no Fafnir. I am not going to pretend that I know much about the cultural traditions that influenced Tolkien, but I do know that it would be silly to attribute any aspects of those traditions to Tolkien's cosmos just because they don't directly conflict. He didn't just expand on existing mythology, he used classical models to create his own.