Lord of the Rings

[Nix]

nonono, youve seen it 7

[Dragonfly]

Hey I just thought that I would tell you about the mohawk thing. Orlando (so handsome) only got it becasue when they were raising his hairline for the Legolas wig Liv Tyler said that it would look cool is he got a mohawk! So he did and I think he realized his mistake...but hey his head was in a wig practically the whole time so He probably didn't care. I do like him better with his normal short brown hair, and of course his Legolas look.

[eggnostic]

Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.

'Fair lady!' said Frodo again after a while. 'Tell me, if my asking does not seem foolish, who is Tom Bombadil?'
'He is,' said Goldberry, staying her swift movements and smiling.
Frodo looked at her questioningly. 'He is, as you have seen him,' she said in answer to his look. 'He is the Master of wood, water, and hill.'
'Then all this strange land belongs to him?'
'No indeed!' she answered, and her smile faded. 'That would indeed be a burden,' she added in a low voice, as if to herself. 'The trees and the grasses and all things growing or living in the land belong each to themselves. Tom Bombadil is the Master. No one has ever caught old Tom walking in the forest, wading in the water, leaping on the hill-tops under light and shadow. He has no fear. Tom Bombadil is master.'

- J.R.R. Tolkien The Fellowship of the Ring

What does it mean? Who is Tom Bombadil really? God? Does Tolkien talk about him in the Silmarillion? Is this just Tolkien's way of incorporating his beliefs about God into the novel?

Any theories about this strange and fleeting character?

[Mockingbird]

Any theories about this strange and fleeting character?

ZOMG! ONLY A MILLION!

...but there is a sad lack of Tolkienerdity on this forum so unless Dawn makes her way to this thread, I don't think you'll get many responses.

Anyway, I think the popular theory is that he is the Vala, Aule. When I reread The Silmarillion a little while ago and I had a thought that I can't remember right now...but it was definitely something along the lines of him being a vassal of Aule, maybe, so a Maia....but I can't remember why.

But no, I don't think he's God, if you mean Arda-God, Eru because Eru doesn't get mixed up in Middle-earth. And I don't think he's reality-God either because Tolkien didn't like allegory and more because Tom Bombadil doesn't feel divine...he's more bones of the earth.

[krebbe]

I felt he was more powerful than the maia, but I wouldn't say Aule since he struck me as more of a geology than nature person. I imagine Tom Bombadil as one of the original Ainur of Illuvutar, but one who was never involved with the Valar who first went to middle earth to battle Morgoth, and instead travelled there on this own to enjoy and be part of its nature, renouncing the use of his powers in any good or evil battle.

I know it was said somewhere that none of the other Ainur went to Arda, but I think Tom may have just slipped through the net and since he wasn't meddling, they let him be.

[Mockingbird]

No, the Ainur did go to Arda...the Valar are Ainur, right? And they used to chill there all the time until Melkor made life messy.

Hmm, maybe not a Maia, persay...but I remember now why I said a vassal of Aule. Aule and his spouse, Yavanna, were among the most reluctant to abandon Arda...and Yavanna created tree-spirits (Ents) to protect her work, so I thought it would be a nice little symmetry if Bombadil was something of an earth-spirit that Aule left to protect his. I remember Tom Bombadil often being likened to the earth itself, and leaping from mountains and all that...and Tom Bombadil and Fangorn are the oldest living things in Middle-earth, and Tolkien is very fond of symmetry.

*giggles at discussion*

Oh, eggy, Tolkien refused to explain Bombadil but he has refuted the Eru-theory.

[krebbe]

I didn't think they all went Arda. I assumed some did and formed Valinor while some chilled with Eru; in a similar way that some Elves never left Valinor to set food on middle earth.

After the music was corrupted by the greatest Ainu, Melkor, several of the most powerful Ainur entered Arda. Eru declined to interfere with Arda in any way and as such the further shaping and governing of Arda was left to these Ainur.

Aulë is given lordship over the matter that composes Arda and is a master of all the crafts that shape it. He created the Dwarves, who call him Mahal, the Maker. During the Music of the Ainur, Aulë's themes concerned the physical things of which Arda is made.

After the dwarves were put to sleep by Eru to await the coming of the elves, Aulë told Yavanna, his wife who "is the lover of all things that grow in the earth," of them and she reacted with: “They will delve in the earth, and the things that grow and live upon the earth they will not heed. Many a tree shall feel the bite of their iron without pity.” After this she went to Manwë and appealed to him to protect the trees, the ents were the result.

*nerdgasms*

[eggnostic]

I suppose your talking about The Silmarillion stuff, I haven't had the patience to read it. I should sometime.

I don't see Tom as a God figure either really. I guess more than anything I see him as innocent. Certainly not evil, but just as equally not good, for lack of a better word, (perhaps he is good-er than any of us). Aragorn was good, Gandalf was good, Frodo was good. They fought for what they stood for and believed in. Tom Bombadil did nothing, a pacifist. Of anyone in middle earth he had the least capacity for evil, he wore the ring, and it did nothing. He could have been the ring bearer, but I don't think that's his nature. He is innocent and unfettered. Truly free.

[Jaya]

...but there is a sad lack of Tolkienerdity on this forum so unless Dawn makes her way to this thread, I don't think you'll get many responses.

*coughs politely*

Have you ever *talked* to Callum or Duncan? Or....well, a few other sraffies around...

On topic, not really being a LotR fan though, I always did like Tom Bombadil. It did strike me he was described in a somewhat omniscient way and I was very much upset that he was not included in the film. It makes sense him not being a plot-changing character so I can see why he'd be cut out but I really did like his brief appearance.

[Mockingbird]

...but there is a sad lack of Tolkienerdity on this forum so unless Dawn makes her way to this thread, I don't think you'll get many responses.

*coughs politely*

Have you ever *talked* to Callum or Duncan? Or....well, a few other sraffies around...

'Course I thought of them, but Callum+Duncan+Dawn+Bryn+me=sad lack!

[Riali]

I read this, once upon a time. Years ago, sadly, so I don't remember it very well, but I really liked it. I am also not quite Tolkiennerdy enough to have made it through the Silmarillion, so my grasp of the whole Eadar/Valar/Old Gods of the World etc. stuff is a bit hazy, but I always considered Tom to be among them in some capacity.

[Wolf]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Bombadil was a contemperary of Gandalf and the other wizards.
That would make him a Maia rather than one of the Valar.

I'm not sure i would link him to Aule, whos loves were more goelogical that Toms seem to be.
Tolkien was pretty vague about the origins of Bombadil and Goldberry, but Bombadil was a fully formed character in Tolkiens mind before he wrote The Lord of the Rings.

Some of the Maia, like Melian, made there home on middle earth instead of Valinor.
Melian was the wife of Thingol and the mother of Luthien.

The Balrogs were also Maia, but they were followers of Melkor and the Sauron.

The wizards were sent from Valinor to Middle earth to try to aid in the troubles of the third age.

Wolf.

[cassingtonscholar]

Boy, I had no idea there was so much stuff out there. I mean, I should have known better, after reading the Lord of the Rings and seeing its huge amount of depth. But I guess I shyed away from all that. Maybe, if I have the patience one day, I will read the Sillmarion. This could be in a while, though. I've only had the patience to read LotR proper one and 2/3 times.

I was always fasinated by Bombadil. There is a guy I know named Tom Longabaugh and every time I see his name I want to say Tom Bombadil.