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Jun 2025
1 h

Throwback: Who Is Tom Bombadil?

The Theology Pugcast
About this episode

Unable to meet this week, the Pugcast decided to share an episode from the 2019 archives. Tune in for this blast from the past!


Perhaps the most controversial character in all of Tolkien's writing is Tom Bombadil. People seem to either love him or hate him.  But regardless how you feel about him, most people can't figure out why he's even in the Lord of the Rings. What's the point of the man in the blue jacket and the yellow boots? Certainly Peter Jackson thought he was expendable. He isn't even in the film version of the story. Was he inserted to make Tolkien's children happy? Was Tolkien providing a little filler to buy time because he was still working out the plot? Chris thinks that Tolkien was up to far more than people give him credit for when it comes to Bombadil. Chris actually thinks that you don't really understand Tolkien, or the Lord of the Rings, until you receive Bombadil into your heart. Listen in as Chris, Tom, and Glenn discuss the meaning of the mysterious Tom Bombadil!


Order In the House of Tom Bombadil by CR Wiley, released 2021: https://canonpress.com/products/in-the-house-of-tom-bombadil?srsltid=AfmBOooq7248sFOcSr4AN7DXIDcAH0efflvAA8EcY6WSJcm3K-Ulg-zG


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