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The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book

  • J.R.R. Tolkien

3.67

3 ratings

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book is a collection of poetry written by J. R. R. Tolkien. A volume of songs, rhymes and poems, they tell of Tom's encounters with Goldberry, Old Man Willow, the Badger-folk, and with the ghostly Barrow-wight.

Other poems in the book are an assortment of bestiary verse and fairy tale rhyme. Three of the poems appear in The Lord of the Rings, as well. The book is part of Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium and the Middle-earth canon.

The book, like the first edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, is presented as if it is an actual translation from the Red Book of Westmarch, and contains some background information on the world of Middle-earth which is not found elsewhere: e.g. the name of the tower at Dol Amroth and the names of the Seven Rivers of Gondor. There is also some fictional 'background' information of those poems, linking them to the Hobbit folklore and literature as well as their actual writers (some of them were written by Samwise Gamgee).

The volume includes what W. H. Auden considered Tolkien's best poem, The Sea-Bell, subtitled Frodos Dreme. It is a piece of great metrical and rhythmical complexity that recounts a journey to a strange land beyond the sea.

Genres

  • Middle-earth
  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • English Fantasy poetry
  • Children's poetry, English
  • Middle Earth (Imaginary place)
  • Juvenile poetry
  • British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author)
  • Poetry (poetic works by one author)
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About the author

  • J.R.R. Tolkien

    3 January 1892 - 2 September 1973

    4.29

    1506 ratings · 390 works

Editions

  • Edition cover

    HarperCollins

    2014

  • Edition cover

    Houghton Mifflin Company

    1978

  • Edition cover

    Unwin Hyman

    1990

  • Edition cover

    Christian Bourgois editeur

    1992

Edition cover

[1st American ed.]

Houghton Mifflin Company

1963

  • Edition cover

    Houghton Mifflin Co: Boston

    1963-01-01

  • Edition cover

  • Edition cover

    Allen & Unwin

    1969

  • Edition cover

    1st American ed.

    Houghton Mifflin

    1963

  • Edition cover

    Allen & Unwin

    1962

  • Edition cover

    Klett-Cotta

    January 1, 1984

  • Edition cover

    Grafton

    1993

  • Edition cover

    Allen & Unwin

    1962

  • Edition cover

    Houghton Mifflin

    1962

  • Edition cover

    George Allen & Unwin

    1962

  • Edition cover

    Houghton Mifflin (T)

    October 1978

  • Edition cover

    George Allen & Unwin

    1962