[proxy_user]

Try reading Tolkien's classic essay, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics". This will give insight into how Tolkien worked.

[MHGinTN]

Have never read it. Thanks for the link, will read it a.s.a.p. [Big C.S. Lewis fan, BTW. Hate the 'modernization' of his great works.]

[BaghdadBarney]

"Try reading Tolkien's classic essay, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics". This will give insight into how Tolkien worked."

It's actually an insight into how many Christians (or for that matter Jews) viewed the poem. It's hard to miss the Beowulf/Moses/Saul/David analogy. Hell you could even argue that Darth Vader is another of those characters inspired by the "great but flawed" model...