Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Ned’s choice of topic: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. Growing out of a suggestion from Tolkien’s beloved aunt Jane Neave for a stocking stuffer of sorts in the wake of The Lord of the Rings’s initial success, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil was released in time for the Christmas season of 1962 and became a low-key success, much to Tolkien’s own surprise. Consisting of a variety of poems both from his Middle-earth work as well as older individual poems reworked as needed to take on a more in-universe feeling as necessary, and accompanied by illustrations from his favored artist for his own work, Pauline Baynes, it intentionally didn’t aim for great heights in Tolkien’s own estimation. Regardless, by being officially in canon, it has its own somewhat curious place in the legendarium, if perhaps the lightest of all such efforts. What new perspectives are gained on the character of Tom Bombadil and his universe as a result? What themes recur once more even in these seemingly short works that build on his overriding artistic and aesthetic obsessions across all his literary output? How strange is it that after working against Victorian visions of elfdom and fairies as being far too sappy and cute he ended up showcasing just that in some of the work in this collection? Is Tolkien actually that successful of a poet as it stands or is he someone who knows the tools but doesn’t always demonstrate the gifts? And no inclusion of “Goblin Feet”? C’mon, it had to happen.