pGRIMMS' FAIRY TALES - A BOOK THAT INSPIRED TOLKIEN. With original illustrations. THE PROFESSOR'S BOOKSHELF 10ppProfessor J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, made specific mention of the brothers Grimm In his essay 'On Fairy Stories'. In his essay he mentioned his love of a tale by the name of 'The Juniper Tree' in the Red Fairy Book, renamed 'The Almond Tree' for British audiences.ppTolkien mined the folklore of the Grimm brothers for literary gems. Cecilia Dart-Thornton's new introduction quotes Tolkien's own words on the effect of fairy stories on the human mind. ppIn J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia Scholarship and Critical Assessment by Michael D. C. Drout, Maria Raffaella Benvenuto writes, A number of motifs from the Grimms' fairy tales can be recognized in Tolkien's work, especially in 'The Hobbit'. As both Shippey and Anderson 'The Annotated Hobbit' point out, part of the episode of the three trolls in chapter 2 was inspired by 'Der tapfere Schneiderlein'