Editing Tom Bombadil (section)

=== Sauron's opposite ===

The Tolkien scholar [[Verlyn Flieger]] writes that if there was an opposite to [[Sauron]] in ''The Lord of the Rings'', it would not be [[Aragorn]], his battlefield opponent, nor Gandalf, his spiritual enemy, but Tom Bombadil, the earthly Master who is entirely free of the desire to dominate, and hence cannot be dominated.<ref name="Flieger 2011">{{cite book |last=Flieger |first=Verlyn |author-link=Verlyn Flieger |chapter=Sometimes One Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures |editor1-last=Bogstad |editor1-first=Janice M. |editor2-last=Kaveny |editor2-first=Philip E. |title=[[Picturing Tolkien]] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNjKrXRP0G8C&pg=PA50 |year=2011 |publisher=[[McFarland (publisher)|McFarland]] |location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=978-0-7864-8473-7 |pages=50–51}}</ref> The Christian scholar<!--Houghton University, Templeton Trust--> W. Christopher Stewart sees Bombadil as embodying the pursuit of knowledge purely for its own sake, driven only by his sense of wonder. In his view, this goes some way to explaining Bombadil's indifference to the [[One Ring]], whose only purpose is power and domination.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stewart |first=W. Christopher |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/hobbitphilosophy0000unse/page/155 |chapter=The Lord of Magic and Machines |title=The Hobbit and Philosophy: For When You've Lost Your Dwarves, Your Wizard, and Your Way |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |year=2012 |page=155 |editor-first=Gregory |editor-last=Bassham |isbn=978-0470405147}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"
|+ Sauron's opposite, as analysed by [[Verlyn Flieger]]<ref name="Flieger 2011"/>
|-
!          
! style="width: 225px;" | [[Sauron]] 
! style="width: 350px;" | Tom Bombadil
|-
| '''Role'''  || Antagonist || Earthly counterpart
|-
| '''Title'''  || Dark Lord || "Master"
|-
| '''Purpose''' || Domination of whole of Middle-earth|| Care for [[The Old Forest]]<br/>"No hidden agenda, no covert desire or plan of operation"
|-
| '''Effect of the<br/>[[One Ring]]''' || "Power over other wills" || No effect on him "as he is not human", nor does it prevent him seeing someone who is wearing the Ring
|-
| '''How he sees<br/>the Ring''' || The Eye of Sauron desires to dominate through the Ring || Looks right through it, his "blue eye peering through the circle of the Ring"
|}