[the guy who be short]

I have just realized that Bombadil is phonetically identical to Bombur-dil.

Bombur was one of Bilbo's companions, and -dil is Quenya for friend. So Bombadil is a friend of Bombur.

I would pass this off as mere chance, if there were not further evidence to support it.

Iarwain Ben-adar is Bombadil's Sindarin name. Iar, more commonly spel Yaar in the Latin alphabet, is a Hindi word meaning "Friend". Wain is pronounced like English wine; the suffix -wine is Saxon, I believe, for friend!

As for Ben-adar, I suspect this is merely a Sindarizing of Bombur. The structure of the words is more or less identical - B-vowel-nasal-voiced stop-vowel-r. The shifting of the vowels accounts for the fact that Sindarin and Westron vowels are pronounced differently, Sindarin having nothing closer to the schwa u than an a, for example. The change of the second b in Bombur to a D in Ben-adar could be an attempt to prevent the same phoneme occuring twice in a word, common in Eldarin languages. The change of the m to an n follows logically, the cluster md being impossible.

So we have it. Twice, Bombadil reveals himself to be Bombur's friend.

The Dwarves call him Forn. This is merely a scrambling of friend, with a vowel shift. This seems to imply that Bombadil earned the title "Dwarf-friend," something like an Elf-friend, for his close friendship with Bombur.


Bombadil's beard, brown skin and shortness are all explained in this context. Bombadil, it would seem, was a dwarf-maia hybrid, inheriting many features of both races. When this trans-species joining occured, strange things happened, probably due to them having the wrong number of chromosomes or something. Like a mule, Bombadil was left impotent, hence the lack of children despite his relationship with Goldberry. This genetic muddling would also account for the fact that he is stark raving mad.

Now, this revelation could also explain Bombadil's mysterious statement that he is "Eldest." It would seem that some Maia, infatuated with the dwarves, copulated with one of them when they were first set on Earth, before the Elves and Men came to Middle-Earth, and before Eru reprimanded Aule. This was most likely at Aule's bidding; him being impatient to see the children (and their children). Thus he is Eldest.

The reasons for his specially close friendship with Bombur may only be speculated at. I would, however, suggest that this friendship was responsible for Bombur's size. Being a frequent guest at the home of somebody with an appetite that was half descended from the gods can do that to you.