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 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. 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