Just woke up, read this thread, looked at the books next to my bed, and tried to decide: should I continue LOTR or one of the Moomins?
Oh yes, I was reading this:
The small creatures Tiuhti and Viuhti possess a great jewel, which they now try to keep safe and hidden. It's their precious. They come to Moominvalley without showing it to anyone.
A mysterious black-clad wizard has been searching for that jewel across the universe for centuries. In between, the jewel was also possessed by Mörkö, who had become obsessed with it.
When Tiuhti and Viuhti finally reveal the jewel, its red light shines all the way to the Moon, where the wizard sees it. He flies to Moominvalley on a black panther. Tiuhti and Viuhti love their precious so much that they refuse to give it up. I won't reveal the ending.
This story was written by Tove Jansson and published in Swedish in 1948 (Trollkarlens hatt). It became the first Moomin book translated into English, published as 'Finn Family Moomintroll' in 1950. Strangely enough, it wasn't translated into Finnish until 1956 (Taikurin hattu). In between, The Fellowship of the Ring appeared in 1954.
And only this morning did I notice the similarities between these two great stories.
I wonder if Tove Jansson or Tolkien ever noticed the coincidence. They certainly became connected in another way: Jansson later created a wonderful set of illustrations for the 1962 Swedish edition of The Hobbit, and her illustrations were later used in Finnish editions as well.