And as the thread you posted it on is currently being, em, spring-cleaned, can I just say that I really enjoyed reading it, thanks for posting it. Very interesting...I actually think Flieger's being a bit harsh to Bryan Appleyard, who went as far in praising Tolkien in that article as any British academic would dare...
EDIT: Here's the original AN Wilson article from which Appleyard lifted a lot of the stuff in his piece...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main...w24.xml&page=1