Poor Tom Bombadil!

As I have mentioned on my Our Days blog, my son Austin is listening to The Lord of the Rings and currently he is listening to The Fellowship of the Ring. Because of recent problems (staying up past midnight and listening instead of doing chores) he is listening to them downstairs, and as a result we are all listening to them. The audio cd's are an animated reading of the books, which means they are mostly the character dialogue with just a little of the explanatory details. So far I would have considered them mainly unabridged, until TODAY! I'm making dinner and the Hobbits leave the Shire and are suddenly walking into the Prancing Pony. What? What's up with that?

Poor Tom Bombadil is completely left out!! WHY?! First in Peter Jackson's movies and now the audio cd! Actually, the audio cd was probably made before the movies, but you get the idea.

Personally, I like him, and I like when he saves Merry and Pippin from Old Man Willow and then sings Old Man Willow back to sleep. I'm pretty sure it is the only song in the whole series that I can stand to read all the way through.

I would love to read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and other verses from the Red Book, but my library only has it in spanish. That stinks.