Speaking of ancient survivals, this is perhaps one of Gandalf’s better known quotes after the Fellowship are forced by circumstance to cross the Misty Mountains through the long dark of the Mines of Moria. This seems at first to a a reference to the dreaded Balrog of Moria, but then we learn that he was referring to other beings, the “Nameless Things” who dwell in the depths beneath Moria, entities so ancient and terrifying that “even Sauron knows them not.
Some who have read these passages have seen a parallel to the Lovecraftian ideas concerning ancient survivals which were paralleled and developed by Howard’s ideas on the topic discussed above. Is this a mere coincidence, or was there some influence of these authors on
Tolkien himself? This seems an under-explored topic within Tolkien scholarship.