Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarumian
As I remember, Tolkien mentions him in The Silmarillion. He says, that at the time when ME lied in darkness lit by stars only and children of Eru woke up he was walking here and there...
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That sounds more like Tom speaking of himself to the Hobbits.
Quote:
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'When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless--before the Dark Lord came from Outside.'
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FOTR In the House of Tom Bombadil
Bombadil is not mentioned in
The Silmarillion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarumian
My opinion is that Bombadil is the first Stuart of ME, he was left behind by Vallar when they left to the West in order to keep eye on ME and guide first elves (and may be men). His ability to give orders to trees, to make roads in the wood can be useful to direct elves to the West. Later he retired to a small corner of ME and kept it unchanged as a kind of national park  |
If Tom was a "steward" though, he doesn't seem to have had any success with "guiding" the Eldar. The Vala Oromë was the first to contact them.
No, Gandalf speaks of him as a "moss-gatherer". To me that means he had no active,
intended role in the fates of the denizens of ME, at least in the eyes of the Valar. My own idea is that he could indeed have been an Ainu who entered Eä very early on, and was content to merely observe the unfolding of the Themes.
If, as I think, Ungoliant was a spirit of the same nature following her own agenda, I see no reason why it couldn't have been so with Tom.
When his path crossed that of Frodo and Co. though, Bombadil recognized that the meeting wasn't a random event.
Quote:
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'Did I hear you calling? Nay, I did not hear: I was busy singing. Just chance brought me then, if chance you call it. It was no plan of mine, though I was waiting for you.'
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So, he implies there
was a plan, but it wasn't
his. He was the master of himself, yet he still saw there was a greater force than he.
That says to me that while Tom had been allowed by the Maker to do his own thing in Middle-earth, he was still used to accomplish things not of his own design.
I suppose what I mean to say is that I see Bombadil as having no particular agenda. He just
was, and seems to have had a pretty idyllic existence.