[Child of the 7th Age]

Evisse,

Thanks, Evisse, (and Tuor) for pointing out Shippey. That's what I get for viewing a long list online but not printing it out!

However, it's my understanding that #30 lists Barfield alone, with a fleeting reference to the fact that both Flieger and Barfield's biographer had identified Barfield's impact on Tolkien in their own works. But Flieger is not identified as one of the fifty, which does seem patently wrong, especially when someone like Chance has her own listing.

In a sense you are very correct in asking why the anonymous writer of Christ of Cynewulf wasn't included, when the anonymous student with the exam booklet was. As you imply, lists like these are, by their very nature, "impossible". It is hard enough to sit down and debate the influence of a particular person on Tolkien, even when carrying on an extended conversation, and actually reach an agreement. So how much harder (or less worthwhile?) is it to set down a list of the "top" fifty with a one sentence justification for each in some kind of ranked order.

By its very nature any list compiled must be a gross oversimplification. Yet there is something inside people that wants to see things set down clearly on paper --kind of like the hobbits, with no contradictions and such! How else can you explain how people felt when Tolkien made it to the top of several lists as 'book of the century'? And lest one thinks only "fans" are prone to such excesses....if oversimplified lists don't matter, why did many critics blow their lids when they saw Tolkien come out at the top of these lists? Or, for that matter, what about the endless arguments about what work goes where when it comes to establishing what is "canon"? Those dratted lists again....

I do think this compiler would have been better served by limiting the number of people listed, and providing more explanation of why that person actually deserved inclusion in the list. I also see an inherent movie "bias" in some of these names,which reflects the interests of the person who actually made the list. For example, David Salo did a good job in providing Elvish material for the movie, but there have been a number of people involved over many years in editing the materials coming out from the estate: Hostetter, Wynne, Smith, etc.
Because of them, we have access to materials like osanwe-kenta that didn't even exist in the public domain before.

In a list of this type, I honestly think there is no one "expert" who could do it all. It would be hard to find one person who was equally knowledgable in all these different aspects of Tolkien: Elvish language, art, cinema, biography, music, popular culture and, of course, the writings. The only way to come up with a list that truly reflected those interests in some kind of balance would be to have it selected by a group of people, a project far beyond what was done here.

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