Quote:
Originally Posted by Hakon
I see. Since Tom is supposed to be external from the world that probably means he is some sort of God like figure in another world. The power he has in middle earth is like a fraction of his real power. That is my guess, it does not make sense that he is just some regular human.
He has been there since the start of Arda is what it sounds like. To have the power to enter Arda, must mean he is something like Eru's equal in another world or he is some extremely powerful being that has only a fraction of his power in Middle Earth.
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I don't think it
necessarily implies any kind of 'divinity'. It certainly means that either Tom & Goldberry are in some sense 'external', are 'intruders' into Middle-earth - or it means that in some way their world (Tom's Country) is in some sense one of the 'different planes of reality' which touch/interconnect in the sense Tolkien mentions in the letter - in which case it would be the four Hobbits who are intruders into Tom's world.
Of course, 'Tom's world' existed long before LotR was written & its usually assumed that he & Goldberry, Old Man Willow & the Barrow Wight were introduced into LotR to provide an 'adventure'. But given Tolkien's words in the letter -about 'chinks in the scenery which give glimpses of another different world outside' & 'something left over that demands a different or longer construction to "explain" it' it seems that Tolkien is experimenting with concepts of multiple realities & interconnected & separate but interdependent dimensions. In some sense 'Tom's Country' is not Middle-earth, & different rules apply there. Tom 'is' - within the world of Middle-earth he cannot be explained - Tolkien deliberately chose not to fit him in. In that sense all those critics who claim he doesn't 'belong', that he is out of place, are absolutely correct. It could be argued from what Tolkien writes in that letter that not only does he not 'fit', he was not
meant to fit. In some way the Hobbits cross into a different time/place, another 'reality', & do not re-enter Middle-earth till they step onto the road near Bree. It is very much a dream world in a sense, & dreams play a prominent part in the whole episode for that reason. In Tom's Country it is the Hobbits who are out of place.