. . . again Tolkien himself regretted the energy spent tracing the inspirations for his work, or for any fairy tale.  From "On Fairy-stories":

"Of course, I do not deny, for I feel strongly, the fascination of the desire to unravel the intricately knotted and ramified history of the branches on the Tree of Tales.  It is closely connected with the philologists' study of the tangled skein of Language, of which I know some small pieces.  But even with regarding to language it seems to me that the essential quality and aptitudes of a given language in a living monument is both more important to seize and far more difficult to make explicit than its linear history.  So with regard to fairy stories, I feel that it is more interesting, and also in its way more difficult, to consider what they are, what they have become for us, and what values the long alchemic processes of time have produced in them.  In Dasent's words I would say 'We must be satisfied with the soup that is set before us, and not desire to see the bones of the ox out of whicn it has been boiled.'  . . .  By 'the soup' I mean the story as it is served up by its author or teller, and by 'the bones' its sources or material---even when (by rare luck) those can be with certainty discovered."

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"‘I think he was a silly little man,' said Councillor Tompkins.  ‘Worthless, in fact; no use to Society at all.'

"‘Oh, I don't know,' said Atkins, who was nobody of importance, just a schoolmaster.  ‘I am not so sure: it depends on what you mean by use .'

"‘No practical or economic use,' said Tompkins.  . . .

. . .

"‘It is proving very useful indeed,' said the Second Voice.  ‘As a holiday, and a refreshment.  It is splendid for convalescence; and not only for that, for many it is the best introduction to the Mountains.  It works wonders in some cases.  I am sending more and more there.  They seldom have to come back.'"