In the House of Tom Bombadil

by C.R. Wiley

Whatever we think is the final truth of things, that’s the image we conform to.

Pythagoras believed that numbers were the key to unlocking the secrets of Reality. But rather than making a materialist of him, mathematics made him a mystic. He thought that people should attune themselves to the grand music of the cosmos. In the old way of thinking, that music was known as the “Music of the Spheres.” Essentially, someone who is attuned to the music of creation lives in harmony with all things.

Managers never give up control; rulers intervene only when some rule has been violated—as we see with Tom and Old Man Willow.)

Medieval thinkers noted that life can be lived in two modes—an active life and a contemplative one. Ideally, a man ought to make time for both. But people being people means that one or the other tends to come more naturally to most of us.

And even though Christians, including Tolkien, know that only the return of the King will put an end to the Dragon, there are roles for the rest of us to play in the story of his defeat.

Still, I’m glad Tom didn’t do it; and I’m glad that he wasn’t asked to. That story wouldn’t have been nearly as good as the one we have. Perhaps that’s the point—it wouldn’t have been a good story. And maybe the same point applies to our world, and even to our lives. Our troubles, our daily struggles with evil, amount to a better story than one in which our troubles vanish with a casual wave of the Divine Hand.

Here’s a postscript to the postscript, a final thought that occurred to me as I was putting the last touches on this book: the first time that Tom saved the hobbits it was at a tree, and the second time that he saved them it was at a tomb. For those pondering what Tom represents, that’s an even more encouraging thought.