Bombadil

Reviewing a book about a Tolkien character Jackson chose to leave out of his film version of LOTR:

....Wiley does, however, attempt to make sense of Tom’s place in Tolkien’s story. As he sees it, Bombadil is set directly against some of the vices of the fantasy epic’s villains, especially the corrupted wizard Saruman. Bombadil is completely immune to the Ring of Power’s temptations, has a more holistic approach to knowledge, and prefers “dominion” over the natural world, living in harmony with it. He thus stands in direct contrast to Saruman’s lust to “become a Power,” his willingness to “break a thing to find out what it is,” and his preference to subjugate and despoil the natural world. ....

...[T]hough Tolkien was famously averse to allegory, the last words Wiley includes in the book — a “postscript to the postscript” ... — might be of even greater significance: “The first time that Tom saved the hobbits it was at a tree, and the second time that he saved them it was at a tomb. For those pondering what Tom represents, that’s an even more encouraging thought.” (more)

Jack Butler, "Tom Bombadil: Mystery Solved?," NRO, Sept. 7, 2022.