Throwback: Who Is Tom Bombadil? [The Pugcast]

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4.6 • 949 Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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

Support the Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why, hello. Welcome to this special Blast from the Past episode of Theology podcast.
0:08.0	I'm afraid that Glenn Sunshine isn't with us and Tom is terribly busy.
0:14.0	Every once in a while, in a great while, I should say, this happens so we can't record a show.
0:20.0	So we've got a special treat for you, though, today.
0:22.4	We've got an episode for you to hear that is from all the way back in 2019.
0:30.3	And the title of the episode is Who is Tom Bombadale?
0:34.1	A couple of things about this that are fun.
0:35.7	One is that we're in the old corner
0:38.2	pug in West Harper, Connecticut, right down the street from the Colt Arms Manufacturing Factory.
0:45.0	And so what you hear in the background is actually a pub atmosphere. We're on our mics,
0:51.3	but you'll hear a lot of background noise. And a lot of folks like that, and we kind of miss it too.
0:57.4	But Pub is no longer in existence.
1:00.6	The Corner Pug shut down a couple years ago.
1:03.3	We just went out of business.
1:04.5	So even if we were all in Connecticut right now, we wouldn't be meeting there.
1:09.1	But another thing that's fun is that this episode was recorded before my book on Tom Bombadillo came out.
1:15.9	So I'm kind of giving folks a little preview of what's to come with regard to that book.
1:21.4	Something else we want you to know is the podcast will be at the PCA General Assembly down in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
1:30.5	From June 24th through the 26th, we're going to be recording shows on the 25th and 26th
1:37.9	right there in the display hall at the SHM Architects booth.
1:43.3	We'd love you to come by. We're going to be recording shows on Wednesday and Thursday at 9.30 a.m.,
1:49.1	11 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. And we've got special guests that are going to be interviewing during those
	...

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