[Child of the 7th Age]

Bethberry and Helen --

I agree with you that Goldberry possesses special significance for the book Frodo, even when compared with Arwen and Galadriel. Perhaps, it is because she is the first truly beautiful woman he has seen and spoken with face-to-face. And the first of anything is always very special. On checking back in Timons, I see he says something quite similar about the initial scene with Golberry: "This scene may reflect the awakening of the male adolescent desire for the feminine. All the words resonate with the sudden and arresting "first love" that most everyone has experienced." (Mythlore, #89, 76)

I also see something unique in Goldberry's nature, at least when compared with the Elven women. I know there is one point in the Letters where Tolkien states, way back in 1937, that Bombadil is the spirit of the vanishing Oxford and Berkshire countryside, in effect a nature spirit. And Goldberry, of course, is the daughter of the River. In a 1958 Letter, Tolkien says she "represents the actual seasonal changes in the land." Putting all that together, we certainly get a sense of Tom and Goldberry's tie to nature and the land. (I will set aside any discussion of these two as part of the Valar or the Maiar which is another question.)

If there is any magic that the kuduk possess, it is that of the earth itself, the ability to nurture and appreciate the land and to move quietly and deftly over it. So it makes a great deal of sense that Goldberry, who represents nature itself, would be more accessible to their hearts than an Elven figure--even for Frodo with his Elvish longings.

Oh, dear, I'm afraid we've hit another "clairvoyant" moment here. Both Timmons and Bethberry refer to Bombadil's house in pre-lapsarian terms. Glorfindel, of course, called Tom the "First". Timmons doesn't say this, but I know Tom was even supposed to be born before the entry of the Dark Lord into the world, another possible allusion to the Eden theme. In any case, Timmons takes this and ties it in to a Letter Tolkien wrote to his son where he briefly contrasts love in a fallen and unfallen world. Some of those words about "unfallen" love almost seem applicable to Frodo (if you tone them down several notches!):

In such a great inevitable love, often love at first sight, we catch a vision, I suppose, of marriage as it should have been in an unfallen world.

Another point, I don't think it is coincidence that each of the places of refuge have a significant female figure--and I don't even think any critics have picked up on that: Tom's--Goldberry, Rivendell --Arwen, Lorien--Galadriel, and to that I would add, Rosie in the Shire, which is also a place of rest. By a stretch, you could even identify Eowyn with the House of Healing, since this is where her feminine nature truly emerges.

No, Timmons doesn't deal with Faramir and Eowyn, but he does mention Merry's response to her on the battlefield where he determines that she shall not die alone--another example of hobbit sensuality. III,142

Even after the Ring quest, Frodo is able to see and admire the beauty in Arwen:

And Frodo when he saw her (i.e. Arwen) come glimmering in the evening, with stars on her brow ad a sweet frangrance about her, was moved with great wonder, and he said to Gandalf: 'At last I understand why we have waited! This is the ending! Not only day shall be beloved, but night too shall be beautiful and blessed and all its fear pass away!'

All of this underlines how much Frodo lost when he departed to the West. As Timmons say:

As Frodo bids farewell to Sam, Merry and Pippin, he leaves behind not only dear companions and loving friends, but mature males who will go on to marry, raise families, and solidfy ther communties. One of Frodo's wounds from his experiences, a sort of metaphorical castration, is that he will never experience such joys available to mortals in Middle-earth.

[img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[ June 24, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]