Now your putting words in my mouth.
Stop it.
I never said he wasnt scholarly but however like old Anglo Saxon Epics LOTR and the Hobbit are, they are not in fact scholarly works (even with all the history Tolkien did in them) because they are fiction. These books and the Simarillian are literature.
His world building, professor of language or not is not in fact scholarly. Masterful maybe, but Tolkein isnt writing a history or an analysis of a real place, the story and back story come from his own mind even if the forms he follows are related to the the Elder Edda, Song of Roland and Norse and Anglo Saxon Sagas. I may give you some points on the linguistics but since they are a small portion of the books and used mainly for flavor I dont think they count either. If the LOTR was a translation then it would be a scholarly work, but in this case its a work of literature.
Tolkiens esseys and translations (Orfeo and the Pearl, Gawain and the Green knight and so on) are scholarly work, and while they are very good, I dont enjoy them as much as other books.