Re-reading the Lord of the Rings, Chapter 14

The Council of Elrond is for the most part plain enough and also a rather long chapter, so I'll only pick up two points.

‘‘Strider’’ I am to one fat man who lives within a day’s march of foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly. Yet we would not have it otherwise. If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be, and we must be secret to keep them so. That has been the task of my kindred, while the years have lengthened and the grass has grown.

The secrecy of the Rangers is much like that of the Catholic Church.

‘I know little of Iarwain save the name,’ said Galdor; ‘but Glorfindel, I think, is right. Power to defy our Enemy is not in him, unless such power is in the earth itself.’

Precisely, only that there are not only trees in the earth, but also other living things like men and Elves. Thus it is within Tom Bombadil's power to defy the Enemy, if it is within the council's.