In The Lord of the Rings Tolkien writes that 7 Dwarves were given rings. I know that Tolkien took a lot of inspiration from different sources including ancient fables and stories, tales of the Pagan religions and other places when forming the mythos of his stories.
Is there any indication that the 7 dwarves handed rings are linked, via shared inspiration, to the 7 dwarfs from Snow White?
Did the Brothers Grimm and Tolkien take their inspiration from the same sources, or was Tolkien himself inspired by the Grimm fairy tales in some way. Or is this just one of those coincidences and one has no bearing on the other?
The Book of Lost Tales In The Book of Lost Tales the very few Dwarves who appear are portrayed as evil beings, employers of Orc mercenaries and in conflict with the Elves—who are the imagined "authors" of the myths, and are therefore biased against Dwarves.[T 3][T 4][1] Tolkien was inspired by the dwarves of Norse myths[2][3] and dwarves of Germanic folklore (such as those of the Brothers Grimm), from whom his Dwarves take their characteristic affinity with mining, metalworking, crafting and avarice.[4][5]
This would seem to suggest the 7 where inspired by the Brothers Grimm, but I am unsure as to the reliability of this source.