I always kind of thought the Tolkein lifting was intentional - the whole idea of the Wheel of Time repeating the Ages over and over, so what Tolkein retold in our time (say the First Age) was a distant remnant of the Third (or Fourth, Fifth, Sixth or Seventh) Ages that had come before, and Jordan was writing how the events happened again this time around.

Ooooor he could just have swiped it.

?