[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Ack, judging the last few posts I am entirely out of left field, or should I say East field here, ( I still have not caught up in reading this thread, but am somewhere in the midst of Friday’s posts.)

Just wanted to propose something before we move on to the next chapter…

Tom is referred to the master, but master of what? I personally feel that he is the master simply of his own fear and therein lays his power. Perhaps he is to be viewed as an archetype of what created beings were meant to be and that is why he seems not to fit any race fully, rather than being seen as a nature spirit or some thing in the ‘other’ category. At first I was remembering the mention in the letter at the beginning of the Silmarilian that men had fallen once before, and we aren’t told how that exactly came about. Was Tom a man from that time who somehow remained untouched? Probably not if he was alive when Middle Earth was still starlit.

But Tom, not contending with nature, exists in a somewhat peaceful balance with it, despite its (and his) eccentricities. Goldberry is a nature spirit who has a powerfully good/beneficial/life supporting aspect, as does water, but I do not think that she is tame. The union of Tom and Goldberry could be representative of the relationship created beings were supposed to have with nature.

But thinking back to the first time I ever read this chapter, I remember feeling a bit uneasy, wondering why exactly Tom and Goldberry weren’t present at breakfast and so on. Were the hobbits going to be lulled into another precarious situation by this rather seemingly mismatched couple that worked so well together? Were they off stoking the fire under a large kettle out back?