tarchon
First Post
(Evil) Devas are Persian/Zoroastrian, the Erinyes are the Furies of Greek mythology, a.k.a. the Eumenides.gloomymarshes said:sphinxes come from egyptian/ancient grecian myth of course.
The Banshee is from irish folklore, and half the celestial and infernal hosts (devas, erinyes) are from christian legend. The balor however, is tolkien's Balrog.
Dryads/nymphs/pixies/nixies/undine/gnomes and dwarfs are all from english/irish/scottish folklore.
The worgs are tolkien's wargs.
Dryads and nymphs are ancient Greek, nixies are German (see the Bros. Grimm)(as well as being a type of digital display and US Postal slang for undeliverable mail), dwarves were common currency of Germanic folklore, and the undines and gnomes are largely from medieval alchemy.
The pixie is British though.
"Warg" is just from an alternative Germanic root for "wolf" - Tolkien modeled them closely on Norse folkloric concepts.