I Read Books: The Adventures Of Tom Bombadil
The Adventures Of Tom Bombadil
Sixteen poems by J R R Tolkien, all part of his Middle Earth legendarium. In the introduction Tolkien makes the claim they are marginalia in The Red Book, the book that contained the narrative of The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings; they are hobbit legends and rhymes.
Most of them are rhyming tales, more or less nonsense, with the two Tom Bombadil poems coming somewhere in the middle of the nonsense spectrum spectrum. They’re structured so that Tom goes out, has various episodic encounters, then makes his way back. If this seems rather neat then it’s the neatness of a folk song or tale, the plot and verses repetitive to ease remembering and interest the audience, and finally polished up by a 19th century antiquarian who recorded it.
Tolkien knows this form inside and out and can create new versions flawlessly. But I’m not sure this improves on the existing corpus; minor works from him. Having said that I find Errantry brilliantly charming, and The Sea-Bell (aka Frodo’s Dreme) evokes some of the best of his work.
Read This: Some fun and interesting poems that reveal much
about the structure of folk poems and ballads and such like
Don’t Read This: If you want to learn the secrets of Tom
Bombadil or Middle Earth or whatever
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