The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and other verses from The Red Book

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and other verses from The Red Book

1962 • 64 pages

Ratings11

Average rating3.1

15

This is the third in Tales from the Perilous Realm, but this one was a first time read for me. I admit that the ‘other verses' kind of went over my head or I misunderstand, because about halfway through I was like “what in the world does this have to do with Tom Bombadil?” So I actually listened to this twice today. 
This is actually a collection of poems by Tolkien. It includes two about Bombadil, who readers will know from Frodo meeting him in The Fellowship of the Ring. As one of the strangest characters I personally think he ever created, it still does not surprise me that Peter Jackson skipped that part entirely. 
The collection includes three that are actually featured in The Lord of the Rings as well, and the book had a very cool ‘in-universe' (esque) preface. It speaks of how some of the stories are written by Bilbo or Sam, and how one featured is actually a dream that Frodo had, although probably not actually written by him. 
During my first listen through, as I stated above, I was looking for the Tom Bombadil context and was super confused. On the second, I enjoyed it and appreciated it for what it was. Poetry is not really my thing, but some of these are considered to be very good works by Tolkien, so I'm glad to have experienced them. 
The 16 featured poems are: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil Bombadil Goes Boating Errantry  Princess Mee The Man in the Moon Stayed Up too Late The Man in the Moon Came Down too Soon The Stone Troll Perry-the-Winkle The Mewlips Oliphaunt Fastitocalon Cat Shadow-Bride The Hoard The Sea-Bell (OR ‘Frodos Dreme') The Last Ship
Enjoyable, well down works written throughout his life. Personally a 4/5* for the king. 

September 13, 2022Report this review