On the topic of English folklore and myth, and Tolkien's attempt to create a "better" one...
There is definitely an 'everyman' tradition in real English folklore. (Put that in your pipe and
it, Ang, you naughty newbie teaser...) I'm thinking of Jack the Giant Killer, which everyone always points to as the 'classic English' fairy story. Is that the sort of chap-book stuff Tolkien didn't like, I wonder?
And as for Norse literature, which tombombariffic has already mentioned...heredity was I believe even more important than in comparable Mediterranean or Asian works. Every time a new major character is brought into a saga, the first thing you learn about him is his geneaology, going back several generations, this is an essential part of who he was. Sometimes of course heredity could go horribly wrong: the villain of Njalssaga, Mordr Valgardsson, had the most impressive roster of Viking ancestors anyone could wish for. And yet he was an underhand scheming toad.
Also, despite the heredity obsession, Viking society was, as it still is, relatively egalitarian. And Anglo Saxon kings were not usually selected by primogeniture, but by council.
So a Tolkienesque emphasis on lineage doesn't necessarily mean "divine right of kings."
So what is my overall point? I'm not really sure myself, but as for the charge of Tolkien being 'elitist', the verdict seems to me to be the Scottish 'not proven'.