The Centrality of the Tom Bombadil Episode in The Fellowship of the Ring: Lessons in Friendship, Community, and Grace

Readers and critics disagree on the role and function of the Tom Bombadil character in Tolkien's The Fellowship if the Ring, many arguing that Tom is superfluous and unnecessary. This paper uses textual analysis and references from Tolkien's letters and correspondence to argue that Tolkien had a specific purpose for keeping Tom in the novel even after many revisions and tweaking of the manuscript. He never said what the purpose is, and this paper argues that Tom provides historical context for the Hobbits' quest and teaches Frodo how to accept the grace of others. This paper won first prize in the CSLIS 2015 Scholar Writing Contest.