Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Oriana’s choice of topic: Tom Bombadil. Famous—or more probably, infamous—jolly Tom is one of the most unusual characters in The Lord of the Rings, dropped in wholesale, along with his partner Goldberry the River Daughter, the threatening Old Man Willow and the bone-chilling Barrow-wight, from a playful English folklore-tinged poem Tolkien wrote years even before The Hobbit was published. And, well, boy, does he sing a lot—and caper. What’s he even doing in Middle-earth to start with, and how does he, or doesn’t he, fit with the entire logic of the larger story? Is it impossible to adapt him for the screen or even the radio? And—despite all of that—what are some of his better qualities as a character in this story, given that in the end he also inspires some of Tolkien’s most lovely—and, alternately, terrifying—writing?