In the House of Tom Bombadil (C. R. Wiley)

In the House of Tom Bombadil

What is Tom Bombadil doing in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings ? His bright blue coat and yellow boots seem out of place with the grandeur of the rest of the narrative.

“Some of the best insights ever made about J.R.R. Tolkien’s invented world or, frankly, about 20th-century literature…. Here is a book of intense wisdom and penetrating thought.” — Bradley J. Birzer, author of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth

In this book, C. R. Wiley shows that Tom is not an afterthought but Tolkien’s way of making a profoundly important point. Tolkien once wrote, “Tom Bombadil represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyze the feeling precisely. I would not, however, have left him in, if he did not have some kind of function.”

Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry are a small glimpse of the perfect beauty, harmony, and happy ending that we all yearn for in our hearts. To understand Tom Bombadil is to understand more of Tolkien and his deeply Christian vision of the world.

Contents

Foreword by Bradley J. Birzer

An Apology

1. “Who is Tom Bombadil?”
2. “Tom Bombadil is Master”
3. “A Long String of Nonsense-Words (or so they seemed)”
4. “Fear Nothing!  For Tonight you are Under the Roof of Tom Bombadil”
5. “Goldberry is Waiting”
6. “Get Out, You Old Wight!  Vanish in the Sunlight!”
7. “I am Going to have a Long Talk with Bombadil”

Postcript

About the Author

C. R. Wiley is a senior contributor to The Imaginative Conservative and a pastor in Vancouver, Washington. His short stories have appeared in The Mythic Circle and Fear and Trembling, and his nonfiction has appeared in Touchstone Magazine, Relevant Magazine, and Modern Reformation. He is also author of Man of the House and The Household and the War for the Cosmos.