Tolkien's prose is brilliant. It's simple and it moves along in little steps, but every step is deliberate, and Tolkien avoids Latin roots. He was a professor of Old English, and Old English creeps into his books on furred hobbit-feet, with a little green sward here and an Isengard there. "I will take the ring, though I do not know the way." Simple but brilliant.

I agree with the refutation of "Epic Pooh", but for my own purposes and for purposes of my post in defense of Other Fiction, I also couldn't help but notice this particular paragraph:

In fairness, I do agree with some of “Epic Pooh’s” points. Moorcock laments the ignorance of the reading public when it comes to writers like Fritz Leiber, who are often overlooked in favor of lesser fantasy authors that have achieved more popularity simply because they’re an easy, safe read (agreed). I also think that second-rate Tolkien clones—many of which I enjoyed as a youth—have muddied the waters of fantasy literature and contributed to dragging the genre down in the eyes of critics. However, I don’t think they should be actively avoided as Moorcock suggests, just recognized as derivative.