Lord of the Rings Book Talk 3 | Tom Bombadil? & Destroying the Ring?

If your exposure to the Lord of the Rings has been through the Peter Jackson films alone, than you will have likely never heard of the name (or person) Tom Bombadil.  In the book The Fellowship of the Ring, however, Tom Bombadil is an important character for at least two full chapters of the book, and his name/person comes up on more than a few occasions thereafter, and prior (for those who know their history).  It’s easy to see why he was left out of the films, for his character, his person-hood, is very mysterious, and left vague, even by Tolkien himself.  Scholars like to debate of what type of creature- if creature at all- Bombadil is.  But leaving that all aside, it’s a great question to ask: why not just give the Ring of Power to Tom Bombadil and have him keep it safe forever?  This is the first question we discuss in this session.

A related question that we also talk about is if not Tom Bombadil, why not send The Ring into The West (into the Undying Lands), where the Elves and Valar (gods of the world) reside?  In other words, why not send The Ring into “heaven” (if you will) and have it kept there for all eternity so that it might never hurt anyone again?  Another great question.

Other Lord of the Rings discussions.

Yet another Lord of the Rings discussion.

We hope that you have fun watching the discussion of these issues, and we look forward to hearing your own questions, thoughts, opinions, and all.  Thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Find Your Voice,

Jer & Tez

5/27/2016