The question of whether or not Tolkien was influenced by Richard Wagner, a famous 19th Century German Composer, has long been a matter of debate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien%27s_influences#Wagnerian_influences
Some critics have suggested that The Lord of the Rings was directly and heavily derived from Richard Wagner's opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen, whose plot also centres on a powerful ring.[54] Others have argued that any similarity is due to the common influence of the Volsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied on both authors.[55][56]
Tolkien sought to dismiss critics' direct comparisons to Wagner, telling his publisher, "Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases." According to Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Tolkien, the author claimed to hold Wagner's interpretation of the relevant Germanic myths in contempt, even as a young man before reaching university.[57]Some researchers take an intermediate position: that both the authors used the same sources, but that Tolkien was influenced by Wagner's development of the mythology,[58][59] especially the "concept of the Ring as giving the owner mastery of the world that was Wagner's own contribution to the myth of the Ring".[60] Wagner probably developed this element by combining the ring with a magical wand mentioned in the Nibelungenlied that could give to its wearer the control "over the race of men".[61][62] In addition, the corrupting power of Tolkien's One Ring has a central role in Wagner's operas but was not present in the mythical sources.[63][64]
Some argue that Tolkien's denial of a Wagnerian influence was an over-reaction to the statements of Åke Ohlmarks, Tolkien's Swedish translator, who in the introduction to his much-criticized translation of The Lord of the Rings "mixed material from various legends, some which mention no ring and one which concerns a totally different
ring".[65][66][67] Furthermore, critics believe that Tolkien was reacting against the links between Wagner's work and Nazism.[68][69]The character who Wagner (And Fate/) fans usually know as Siegfried is who Tolkien fans usually know as Sigurd.
Most of this debate is about the Ring Cycle/Volsung Saga. However I made a post nearly 4 years ago called The Holy Grail and The Silmarills, in which I argued the Silmarills, particularly the one Beren and Luthian obtain that winds up in the possession of Earendil and Elwing, was inspired by a Germanic alternative Grail tradition that began with Wolfram Von Eschenbach's Parzival. However it's not fully developed in Parzival alone.
Richard Wagner composed an Opera adaptation of Parzival called Parsifal. I have never watched this Opera, but from my googling it seems it does include the Grail being a Jewel of Lucifer's Crown detail. Once again I site Jason Colavito.
http://www.jasoncolavito.com/the-holy-grail-as-lucifers-crown-jewel.html
So I do think Wagner was an influence, but nothing in Tolkien is a one for one allegory of what he was inspired by, it all changes and blends together.
But what I'm most interested in is the main reason Tolkien may have wanted to distance himself from Wagner by the 30s and 40s. Hitler and other leading Nazis as well as their spiritual fore-bearer Houston Steward Chamberlain were huge Wagner fanboys. Tolkien in-spite of his own reactionary tendencies absolutely hated the Nazis.
I don't think Wagner would have approved of the Nazis either, even Chamberlain never actually met him (he only married his daughter).
Wagner was guilty of some casual Antisemitism, debates about characters in his Operas being coded negative Jewish stereotypes are not settled, but we know he was mainly because of a piece of non-Fiction he wrote that was mostly just him saying Jews can't make good Music. Which is mostly just proof he never saw Fiddler On The Roof. He was a Lutheran which means Luther's antisemitism could have influenced him as well. But Conspiratorial Antisemitism began emerging after the Dreyfus affair that started in 1894, over a decade after he died. I don't think Wagner would have supported the Holocaust.
Some have even argued for a Marxist reading of Wagner.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/montefiore/1902/07/wagner.htm
So the Nazis and other Right-Wing German Nationalists were into the Aesthetics of Wagner, not the Substance.
In the modern context of comparing early 20th Century Fascism to the Alt-Right, what happened to poor Wagner I view as parallel to the Alt-Right's appropriation of Anime. Too many normies are now assuming an Anime Avatar on Twitter always means being a Trump supporter. But a lot of Anime is inherently Counter Culture, there is no way to form a Conservative reading of Ikuhara, YuriKuma Arashi is both pro-Gay and pro-Immigration, Penguindrum and Sarazanmai are heavily anti-Capitalist and Utena is absolutely anti-Patriarchy. For examples of Leftist Anitubers just look at Pedantic Romanic and Zeria (both Lesbian Trans Women) as well as Shonen Ronin and Posadist Pacman.
Fitting then that Anime is one of the few places modern Media references Richard Wagner without intending it to be a Nazi reference, most recently in the new Boogiepop and Others (Digi thought the Wagner references were removed because he didn't make it far enough). In Hollywood Rise of the Valkyries is always used as a musical Godwin's Law. Sadly the Anime Abandon episode on Harlock Saga states the Tolkien and Wagner connection as fact without acknowledging that there is dispute about it.
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