Yes, all major worls religions share some basic stories -
1) a creation myth
2) some account of the world being flooded
3) a martyr being sacrificed for the good of the whole society
and interestingly enough- it is generally on some sort of wood. (Odin wass nailed to Yggdrisill, Christ on the cross, sacrifices on wood pyres, etc.)

Tolkien heavily drew on the Kalavala, Icelandic myths, Nordic myths, Anglo-Saxon tales, Old English poetry, and Viking tales for many of his concepts in his writings. Shakespeare's Macbeth is the inspiration for the Ents -the Dunsinane forest being cut down and used as camoflouge to attack Macbeth.