[Bêthberry]

Great replies here! Sadly, I have very little time right now to do them all justice.

I can see Ibrin's idea of Tom being similar to Aiwendil/Radagast but I still have difficulty seeing how Goldberry could fit into that kind of schema.

I've found an online copy of ATB so I'll quote some of it here:

Originally Posted by The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, poem

There his beard dangled long down into the water: up came Goldberry, the River-woman's daughter; pulled Tom's hanging hair. In he went a-wallowing under the water-lilies, bubbling and a-swallowing. 'Hey Tom Bombadil, Whither are you going?' said fair Goldberry. 'Bubbles you are blowing, frightening the finny fish and the brown water-rat,
startling the dabchicks, and drowning your feather-hat!'

'You bring it back again, there's a pretty maiden!' said Tom Bombadil. 'I do not care for wading. Go down! Sleep again where the pools are shady far below willow-roots, little water-lady!' Back to her mother's house in the deepest hollow swam young Goldberry. But Tom, he would not follow; on knotted willow-roots he sat in sunny weather, drying his yellow boots and his draggled feather.

. . . .
[Tom and Old Man Willow]
'Ha. Tom Bombadil! What be you a-thinking, peeping inside my free, watching me a-drinking deep in my wooden house, tickling me with feather, dripping wet down my face like a rainy weather?' 'You let me out again, Old Man Willow! I am stiff lying here; they're no sort of pillow, your hard crooked roots. Drink your river-water! Go back to sleep again like the River-daughter!'

. . . .

Then Tom hurried on. Rain began to shiver, round rings spattering in the running river; a wind blew, shaken leaves chilly drops were dripping into a sheltering hole Old Tom went skipping. Out came Badger-brock with his snowy forehead and his dark blinking eyes. In the hill he quarried with his wife and many sons. By the coat they caught him, pulled him inside their earth, and down their tunnels brought him. Inside their secret house, there they sat a-mumbling: 'Ho, Tom Bombadil' where have you come tumbling, bursting in the front-door? Badger-folk have caught you.
You'll never find it out, the way that we have brought you!'' Now old Badger-brock, do you hear me talking? You show me out at once! I must be a-walking.
Show me to your backdoor under briar-roses; then clean grimy paws, wipe your earthy noses! Go back to sleep again on your straw pillow, like fair Goldberry and Oid Man Willow Then all the Badger-folk said: 'We beg your pardon!' They showed Tom out again to their thorny garden went back and hid themselves, a-shivering and a-shaking, blocked up all their doors, earth together raking.

. . . .
[Tom says this to the Barrow Wight]
'Go out! Shut the door, and never come back after! Take away gleaming eyes, take your hollow laughter! Go back to grassy mound, on your stony pillow lay down your bony head, like Old Man Willow, like young Goldberry, and Badger-folk in burrow! Go back to buried gold and forgotten sorrow!' Out fled Barrow-wight through the window leaping, through the yard, over wall like a shadow sweeping, up hill wailing went back to leaning stone-rings, back under lonely mound, rattling his bone-rings.
. . . .

But one day Tom, he went and caught the River-daughter, in green gown, flowing hair, sitting in the rushes, singing old water-songs to birds upon the bushes.

He caught her, held her fast! Water-rats went scattering reeds hissed, herons cried, and her heart was fluttering. Said Tom Bombadil, Here's my pretty maiden! You shall come home with me! The table is all laden: yellow cream, honeycomb, white bread and butter; roses at the window-sill and peeping round the shutter. You shall come under Hill! Never mind your mother in her deep weedy pool: there you'll find no lover!'

Old Tom Bombadil had a merry wedding, crowned all with buttercups, hat and feather shedding; his bride with forgetmenots and flag-lilies for garland was robed all in silver-green. He sang like a starling, hummed like a honey-bee, lilted to the fiddle, clasping his river-maid round her slender middle.

Lamps gleamed within his house, and white was the bedding; in the bright honey-moon Badger-folk came treading, danced down under Hill, and Old Man Willow tapped, tapped at window-pane, as they slept on the pillow,
on the bank in the reeds River-woman sighing heard old Barrow-wight in his mound crying. Old Tom Bombadil heeded not the voices, taps, knocks, dancing feet, all the nightly noises; slept till the sun arose, then sang like a starling: 'Hey! Come derry-dol, merry-dol, my darling!' sitting on the door-step chopping sticks of willow, while fair Goldberry combed her tresses yellow.

The bolding is mine, not in the original. There's a couple of things which interest me here. First, it is quite remarkable in that Goldberry is clearly equated with those creatures who are hostile to Tom. She is "like" Old Man Willow, the badget-folk, the Barrow Wight. After all, she pulled Tom's hair and pulled him in under the water. I cannot see how Goldberry could be related to Maiar or Valar given these circumstances. She belongs to the animated natural world which is some threat to Tom. Think of the Selkies of Scottish folklore.

She also belongs to an underworld, the deep, deep waters of the river/pond. And Tom comes and abducts her away from her mother. It is almost as if Tolkien here were reversing the traditional mythology of Persephone and Demeter, but instead of becoming the mistress of the Underworld/Hades, Goldberry is kidnapped to the above ground and happy world of Tom. And even as she is said, in the Letters, to be Mistress of the Seasons, unlike Persephone, she apparently never returns to her mother even seasonally, although Tom does bring her mementoes and tokens of her underworld existence. She is told to forget good old mum, who remains behind in the underworld mourning the loss of her daughter.

Is this a primal scene of patriarchial domination of matriarchial society? of men over women? What part of the song of creation is this?

okay, me gots to go.