Re-reading the Lord of the Rings, Chapter 7

The queer business of Tom Bombadil is a tip of the hat to wisdom, its removedness from any particular troubles, its unchanging nature, its perchedness above the courses of life, from where it derives its eternal answers.

Life, from this perspective, will always appear in its youth*, and once recognised, be wed to him in harmony who gave each of its turns its proper response.

It is a priviledge to conceive before the deed and the biggest treasure that spare time can hoard.

Alas, not everybody can be a professor! Tolkien comes to the logical end of his career counseling and sets out to get on with the plot.

Anyway, let us state clearly, lest it be missed:

• Tom Bombadil = philosophy,
• Elves = science.

* A bird told me Toklien was rewriting Nietzsche's Das andere Tanzlied in Also sprach Zarathustra, but there's nothing I can say to the reliability of that bird.