Quote:
Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc
Good, Morthoron, good, but allow me please one remark - what you wrote applies a lot to Tom, but not to Goldberry. Despite the fact they are put together as a couple, Goldberry does not seem otherworldly (quite the opposite - she is descended from "river", an existing creation!), says nothing in the sense that "she is" or that she'd be "oldest", and I think (though I am just guessing, I am not that acquainted with the Letters) Tolkien did not mention her as a problem in the Letters. All you said applies only to Tom. But ultimately, that says nothing about Goldberry!
|
Not wishing to demean Lady Goldberry nor lessen her status, but if you are speaking in context of her creation, then you must look elsewhere than Lord of the Rings -- to a 1934 poem regarding Bombadil; thus she is part and parcel of the Bombadil story, an adjunct character that was not contrived organically by Tolkien for LotR. Therefore, I would include her in the
Tom Bombadil Enigmatic & Utterly Unorthodox Journey.
I was not speaking in reference to Goldberry's original incarnation in the poem (which other posters have touched on here -- nymph, folkish water spirit, etc.), rather, her relationship strictly in context to LotR (or rather her uncontextuality). Interestingly enough, the name Goldberry could be taken to mean 'Flower Queen' in Sindarin (
Golodh-bereth).