In the House of Tom Bombadil by C.R. Wiley 

The book is In the House of Tom Bombadil by C.R. Wiley. It was originally published 2021 by Canon Press. I read the 2021 paperback edition. I read it in December of 2023.  

The title refers to the Lord of the Rings character Tom Bombadil. Wiley mentions how everything changes when Frodo and the hobbits enter Tom’s house. It points to Tom’s domesticity, and dominion with nature.  

I read this because I want to read all of C.R. Wiley’s books, and because I had recently reread Fellowship of the Ring which features Tom the most. I wanted to read this analysis of Tom while the story was fresh in mind.  

Wiley mainly comments on Tom’s dominion over nature and all things including the ring.  

“I think Tom is the ending, as in a happy ending. What does this have to do with dominion? Well, bless my beard, it’s the same thing!” (p100) 

The ring of power has no effect on Tom. He is not in danger of its wicked harm.  

I entered this book with some questions I wanted answered. I know Wiley’s general take on piety and dominion from his fantastic book The Household and the War for the Cosmos. That book has had the largest influence on me in the last year. It would be fair to say it changed my life.  

Basically he says we need to be about the business that is set in front of us. Work on creating a well-ordered household that is in harmony with the cosmos and if everyone did this it would solve a lot if not all the problems we see today.  

I knew the one ring of the dark lord had no power of Tom. But is he ignorant? He is not the hero of the story. He’s a mysterious outsider almost hermit character who seems unconnected with everything that’s going on outside his domain. I feel like I should be that way but I don’t want to be naive or aloof.  

I have a fear of missing out on the battles for the kingdom. I want to know what’s going on in the world so I consume news and politics like crazy. The thing I would like to have no power over me is social media. But I love knowing what’s going on in politics and culture right when it happens. I know I can’t solve all the world’s problems and I know the importance of setting my own house in order and I feel like I am doing that. But I still want “a voice” in the conversation and express my opinions and to be able to speak into our culture.  

One answer that I found in this book is the importance of a character like Tom can have in the overall story. He saves Frodo and the other hobbits life from the trees that are trying to consume them. He saves their lives and they go on to fight in the battles and destroy the ring and save the world. Tom played his role in the story and if he hadn’t the enemy would’ve won.  

For me this emphasizes the importance of taking dominion over your little patch of land. Every single one of us needs to be about the work that is set in front of us. Like the man said, “everyone wants to change the world but no one wants to help mom with the dishes.” Tom Bombadil had dominion over the nature in his neighborhood. He commanded the tree to release the hobbits. He played his part.  

I guess I need to focus my “voice in the culture” toward my immediate sphere of influence. So instead of ranting on social media to a bunch of nameless, faceless, readers who are probably Russian troll bots, I should pay more attention on having conversations with real people who are in my life day to day.  

This book made me think about Lord of the Rings. I started listening to a podcast about the Tolkien legendarium called The Prancing Pony.  

I was surprised to learn that Tolkien created Tom Bombadil in little stories to his children years before writing Lord of the Rings.  

There wasn’t really anything confusing in this book. Wiley is clear and economical in his writing. He does reference Tolkien’s more academic work that I haven’t read. I need to get on that.  

Wiley explains his points well. This book is accessible and easy to read. My only complaint would be that it was too short. I want to hear more from Wiley on dominion and productive households. This book catches me up on all of Wiley’s writings. But he has more books coming out. I guess I’ll just have to wait for that.  

  

I’d recommend this to Tolkien fans. You really need to read Lord of the Rings before reading this. It’s a great book.  

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Notable Quotables 

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Tolkien made up Tom Bombadil initially to entertain and perhaps console his children. He even wrote a poem about Tom that predates the writing of The Lord of the Rings by years. (p8) 

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Maybe life is art all the way down. And maybe when the original Artist said, “Let there be light,” He had more than one thing in mind. Perhaps, just perhaps, the world doesn’t read like the manual that came with your washing machine. (p30) 

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Today many people rely on science to define Reality. According to these folks, if science can’t know something, there’s nothing to know. But science can’t even explain its own story scientifically. (p42) 

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I think it is a mistake to think of dominion entirely in terms of good and bad. Instead I believe it is better to think of it as coming in two keys: rule and cultivation. (p59) 

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Perhaps dominion should be understood to mean ordering some things for our good, and other things for the good of those things in themselves. (p63) 

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In the history of Christianity, missionaries have tended to follow one of two broad strategies when it comes to evangelizing pagan cultures. One is what I call the “scorched-earth method,” and the other is the “fulfillment method.” (p76) 

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A man can live alone, but not fruitfully. It’s in the nature of things, for a husband and wife bring a good return. In our time we’ve lost our sense of the nature of things—particularly the fruitfulness of a home where women and the feminine arts are honored. (p71) 

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The primary emotion in any bureaucracy, and the real thumbscrew of managerial control, is fear. And this is why Heaven is not a bureaucracy. Instead, it is a harmonious communion of natures, ruled by love. Hell, by contrast, is managed by fear. (p86) 

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But for the moment, let’s return to the question, “Will Heaven be boring?” Perhaps it seems like it could be if you don’t have a taste for holiness. (But if that’s the case, Heaven would most likely be terrifying rather than boring.) The very question begs the question; it is also blasphemous because it implies that the creation has something that the Creator does not. (p97) 

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I think Tom is the ending, as in a happy ending. What does this have to do with dominion? Well, bless my beard, it’s the same thing! (p100)