Tolkien's Sacramental Vision: Discerning the Holy in Middle Earth by Craig Bernthal

Author:Craig Bernthal [Bernthal, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781621380535
Publisher: Second Spring Books
Published: 2014-06-08T22:00:00+00:00

Frodo grabs a sword and hacks the hand off the crawling arm. There is a shriek, and the sword shatters up to the hilt. Suddenly Frodo remembers Tom Bombadil, and even thinking of him makes Frodo stronger. He remembers the song he is to sing, if he gets into trouble within Tom’s realm:

Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!

By water, wood and hill, by the reed and willow,

By fire, sun, and moon, harken now and hear us!

Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us. (142)

Frodo’s cry is not just a prayer, though it is that. The songs of Tom, and this song to him, have much in common with several Psalms in praise of creation, such as 8, 19, 104, 139, and 148. They pit the glory of creation against the un-creation of death.

Tom not only wakes the Hobbits from their “death,” but it’s an awakening that recalls Jesus exit from the tomb, stone rolled aside; Tom sings: “Dark door is standing wide; dead hand is broken./ Night under Night is flown, and the Gate is open!” (original emphasis; 143). In addition, Tolkien gives Tom the words of a baptismal exorcism. The Catholic exorcism at baptism consists mainly of one sentence: “Almighty and ever-living God, you sent your only Son into the world to cast out the power of Satan, spirit of evil, to rescue man from the kingdom of darkness, and bring him into the splendor of your kingdom of light.” Tom’s exorcism, in the spirit of John’s Gospel, casts light against darkness, rescuing Frodo and company from the wight’s kingdom of darkness, bringing them into the bright sunshine of day:

Get out, you old Wight! Vanish in the sunlight!

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