Bombadil and Treebeard in Middle-Earth

Middle-earth is the mysterious made-up setting in which the characters of J.R.R. Tolkien's story, The Lord of the Rings, conduct their lives. As is evident in the name, Middle-earth is a continent located in the central (the middle) of the fictional world; it is not the entire universe or world, yet the characters that inhabit Middle-earth engage in global scale battles and wars with immense and long-lasting stakes. Treebeard and Bombadil are two of the inhabitants of Middle-earth are outwardly as different as could be imagined; yet they share a capacity to deal with adversity and to survive in an arbitrary and hostile world.

The character of Tom Bombadil is an engaging fellow -- he is spry for his age, has a teasing wit, and speaks in a whimsical, jolly, and rhyming manner (McCloskey, 2002). Bombadil tends to narrate his life, speaking in the third...
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