I actually saw and thought that about "Lord of the Rings" as well. I did not want to compare them though b/c I found that it is a common comparison and  I wanted to do something different. Like you said, Tolkien denies inspiration from Wagner, I don't know if that's true though. -Here's an interesting fact, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe series) were actually BFF's. and it was Lewis who admired Wagner so.- Lewis is actually the one who wanted to use Wagner for inspiration on a project. Tolkien despised the person Wagner was and I think that's why he is denying getting the idea from him. I think there are tons of similarities b/w "The Ring" and "Lord of the Rings" the main one being the underlining meaning about the way society is/was.