[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I've always seen Goldberry and Tom as both being unique in Middle-earth, a matched pair, and without further evidence in the books, there being a race of similar beings is difficult for me to accept. As much as we do get to hear of legends and myths held by the denizens of ME, I just have to think there would be a mention of other Golberries somewhere if they were around. I have the Adventures lying around here somewhere, but it's been missing for quite a while, and I don't remember the reference you cite.

Well, let me just note that while I really dislike all the attempts to make Tom a Maia (like some disgusting David Day did), I think with Goldberry it would work to make her a Maia of Ulmo, if it came to that. There is still the possibility to have her as something else - although effectively I think it makes little difference.

Anyway, in the Adventures of TB there is an explicit mention of her mother as a different being, Goldberry is taken away from her and she weeps somewhere around there. Therefore it seems only logical to me that there will be more of them.

In any case, if Tolkien says that the world was "full of strange creatures beyond count" (and he says that in the context of mentioning that nobody knew about Hobbits until Third Age), it implies that there have been many creatures around. After all, LotR is just one random tale taking one year in a history longer than several thousand years as far as the Elven dating goes, and even further in the earlier ages. We aren't told all the legends and bedtime stories of the Rohirrim, or Gondorians, or Hobbits or Elves or whoever, not to speak of Rhun and Harad, and I am pretty sure you will find some tales of Goldberries somewhere, as well as many other tales, some based on reality, some not - or maybe all of them based on reality to a certain extent. There are many uncharted parts of Middle-Earth and places not mentioned in the books and not explored, one does not even know what all sub-species of Trolls there were, and yet you'd dare to assume that our knowledge ends with Tom and Goldberry - if there is such a pair living in the Old Forest, why couldn't, of all places, something similar live in Mirkwood, or far in Rhun? I am not speaking about Tom, who seems to be really unique, but Goldberry or something similar... why not?