Aiwendil, Tom himself puts his presence at Old Man Willow best:
Quote:
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'Just chance brought me then, if chance you call it. It was no plan of mine, though I was waiting for you.'
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Tom = Nature indeed! Here he is admitting that his comings and goings are at one with the 'chance' of circumstance in the created world, and that he is part of (perhaps even subject to?) the "plan."
Another thought has occured to me: in an earlier thread we spoke briefly about women and the pattern that emerges as Frodo moves from feminine refuge to feminine refuge. The first step in this pattern was Mrs. Maggot (the next 'rest' at Crickhollow, and entirely masculine affair, was singularly unsafe and unrestful, as we noted), and now we reach the second occurence in the pattern with Goldberry.
We've already noted the connections between Tom and Maggot, but are there connections between Goldberry and Mrs. Maggot? Both are associated with light, both are associated with domesticity (without being domesticated), both provide nourishment. What is it about the women characters (so far at least) that allows the hobbits to feel so safe, in a way that is perhaps more profound than with men?