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Pile o' Bones
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Re: Who do you think Tom Bombadil really was
What if Tom was not entirely truthful when speaking to the Hobbits?
He is playful and may have just been leading them on with all those claims of being oldest and fatherless. The elves and Gandalf know that Tom is very ancient, but unless Gandalf/Olórin actually remembers Tom from before the creation, they could be mistaken in how old he truly is. He seems to be truly ancient and has demonstrated some unique abilities, but he does not necessarily have to be all that the elves and Gandalf think that he is. He could be just be pulling a prank on them. Pretending to be older than he is. Waiting until The End, when he sees them again, and teases them about how they were so gullible. <img src=eek.gif ALT=":eek"> (Nothing sinister).
It wouldn't be the first time that they were wrong about people. Gandalf was fooled by Saruman as to the fact that he had become corrupt, and the elves did not recoginize Annatar as being Sauron. They were mislead maliciously, but it shows it can be done. Even to Gandalf.
Just because the Eldar bumped into Tom on their migration doesn't automatically make him older than them. He could have awoken after they did, just a lot further west. They were on the road a looong time.
Questioning the fallibility of the sources of the information on Tom only makes him much more of an enigma. <img src=tongue.gif ALT=":b">
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