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.

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“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.

This Study Guide includes chapter summaries, 3-5 questions for discussion and practical application. Perfect for book groups.
C.R. Wiley is a senior contributor to The Imaginative Conservative and a minister living in the Pacific Northwest. His short stories have appeared in The Mythic Circle and Fear and Trembling , and his nonfiction has appeared in Touchstone Magazine, Relevant Magazine Online, and Modern Reformation. He is the author of The Household and the War for the Cosmos and Man of the House . …
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