One main inspiration for <PERSON> was the Christian Bible. Valinor is a parallelism relating to the likes of Heaven and the Elves who have a very strong resemblance likened to the chosen ones, etc.... All of the books have the prototypical evil vs good story background as does the Bible (as do many other literary sources). Men are corrupted and easily influenced by power and live in the middle earth. <PERSON> was banished, but he returned as Satan was to according to scripture. <PERSON>, the dark overlord and his minions and mordor are all highly resembling of Hell, Satan and Demons.
Although <PERSON> was a devout Christian... He obviously was trying to create a unique story and had an awesome imagination and I don't believe his intentions were to mask the concepts in the Bible as opposed to creating an awesome and truly unique literary work of science fiction. Some other/additional possible influences with the detailed aspects of the races possibly come from Northern Mythology.
The ring exhibits a general object of desire. One that is sought after so much that it ultimately and permanently corrupts a soul who is then tortured and tormented at the loss of a material object. 72
Objects of desire in the recorded history of the world tend to lead to wars, murder, etc... I believe this is his main use of the ring as a illustrative tool. Another corollary comes when <PERSON> states (Around 1:24 in The Fellowship of the Ring): "There is only one Lord of the Ring, there is only one who can bend it to his will and he does not share power." Obviously that's a reference to <PERSON> and is illustrative of the concept of <PERSON> and/or God and how they are not subject to the desires of normal man. And just as <PERSON> carried the burden of man and relieved him of his sin - <PERSON> does the same (at least in concept) for all the races of middle earth. I'm not aware of any prior works that have a similar concept of a single ring aside from what's already been mentioned in the other answers.
Here is a excerpt from the link below:
Religious influences
<PERSON> once described The Lord of the Rings to his friend, the English Jesuit Father <PERSON>, as "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision."1 Many theological themes underlie the narrative, including the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity of grace, as seen with <PERSON>'s pity toward <PERSON>. In addition the epic includes the themes of death and immortality, mercy and pity, resurrection, salvation, repentance, self-sacrifice, free will, justice, fellowship, authority and healing. <PERSON> mentions the Lord's Prayer, especially the line "And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil" in connection with <PERSON>'s struggles against the power of the One Ring. <PERSON> has also said “Of course God is in The Lord of the Rings. The period was pre-Christian, but it was a monotheistic world” and when questioned who was the One God of Middle-earth, <PERSON> replied “The one, of course! The book is about the world that God created – the actual world of this planet.”
Check this link:
Wikipedia - Tolkien Influences 72