J. R. R. Tolkien was a highly creative person and a writer who was, using his knowledge and imagination, able to create a whole new world filled with moral lessons, interesting magical places and characters, and most importantly, constant battles between good and evil in which good always finds a way to win. Tolkien made up a very complex historical and mythological background for his novels, and that exactly gives his work a special value among his readers and critics. However, he did not invent every single detail in it, but was strongly influenced by old Germanic, Nordic, Greek, Finnish, and many other mythologies and, since he was a very religious person, Christianity. Some parts of his stories were also inspired by his own life. Tolkien spent almost twenty years of his life writing what later turned out to be his lifework – a novel The Hobbit which was later followed by The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Aside from his broad knowledge and fascination with old mythologies, he was also a university professor who knew a lot about the complexity of language. That is visible in the fact that Tolkien invented whole new languages for his imaginary world and its inhabitants. This paper explores Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, focusing on the details – races, concrete characters, and items like swords and rings – from old mythologies and languages that influenced Tolkien’s writing, as well as all the Christian values like self-sacrifice, friendship, and mercy which he used to distinguish good from bad characters and forces. It will attempt to demonstrate that Tolkien’s novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are a proof of his strong religious beliefs, his ability to create new interesting stories and locations, and to combine his knowledge and imagination into the perfect mixture that has intrigued readers all around the world.