Who or What is Tom Bombadil?

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

OK.

We’ve got ourselves into a flap over Balrog wings…

We’ve tried to pierce the fog that lies around the shape of Elves’ ears…

We’ve fallen out over what happened at Mount Doom…

We’ve come to blows over the question of who felled Sauron…

We’ve even asked the ungodly question of Eru’s nature…

But the time has come to ask the most difficult question of all. To confront the issue that has caused more heartache than any other on the Downs. Take courage my friends, for you are not alone...there will be others with you in the journey ahead as you ask yourself

Who or What is Tom Bombadil?

Read, and then decide…

A mystery within a mystery, involving Tom Bombadil

Tom Bombadil

bombadil being a dwarf

Bombadil as Aule?

Beleg and Bombadil

Bombadil and Gandalf

Farmer Maggot and Tom Bombadil

Bombadil and The Istari

Who/What was Tom Bombadil

I say, dear Bombadil...

Bombadil = yearning?

Did Tom Bombadil remain in Middle-Earth after the Third Age?

AGood Essay on Tom Bombadil.

Tom Bombadil - Maiar ?

What is Tom Bombadil

Tom Bombadil vs. The Ring

Bombadil in LOTR

Tom Bombadil

Re Tom Bombadil

Who do you think Tom Bombadil really was

[mormegil]

My reasoning is based on this most excellent essay found here.

Find Tom Bombadil and read.

[the phantom]

Raise your hand if you saw this poll coming.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Originally Posted by the phantom

Raise your hand if you saw this poll coming.

Should all posts be polls?

[davem]

As usual, Fordim misses the real answer out (I'm beginning to suspect this is a deliberate policy).

The answer to the question 'Who or what is Tom Bombadil' is given in the book:

'He is.'

[Bêthberry]

He is . . . Bêthberry's dad.

[Roa_Aoife]

I'll explain my answer when I don't have papers to write.

[The 1,000 Reader]

He is an enigma. Nuff' said.

[Gurthang]

Originally Posted by davem

The answer to the question 'Who or what is Tom Bombadil' is given in the book:

'He is'

That sounds a lot like 'I am', you know, from the Old Testament.

Which means that Tom is obviously the Judeo/Christian God.

[Roa_Aoife]

Originally Posted by Gurthang

Which means that Tom is obviously the Judeo/Christian God.

Please, not this again...

[The 1,000 Reader]

Originally Posted by Gurthang

That sounds a lot like 'I am', you know, from the Old Testament.

Which means that Tom is obviously the Judeo/Christian God.

"He" was the beginning of the sentence.

[Folwren]

Originally Posted by Gurthang

Which means that Tom is obviously the Judeo/Christian God.

Means nothing of the sort.

I don't know. This question's always boggled me. Will maybe read the threads Fordim posted and then vote. . .

-- Folwren

[Essex]

Originally Posted by davem

As usual, Fordim misses the real answer out (I'm beginning to suspect this is a deliberate policy).

The answer to the question 'Who or what is Tom Bombadil' is given in the book:

'He is.'

I love all the debates these two simple words have given. But the answer, surely, is answered if you put the inflection on the word 'He' and imagine goldberry nodding her head towards the sound of Tom's singing.

Anyway, he's the spirit of middle-earth - i.e. Mother Nature, and therefore he helped save the day at the Pellenor Fieldds by making the 'Wind Change'..........

[Legolas]

I think it also has to do with a touch of innocence.

Certainly!

Tom was certainly an enigma to all others (save Gandalf, probably). He represented a feeling Tolkien had, but even Tolkien did not want to analyze it 'precisely.'

Here are some quotes I often use in Bombadil discussion, and they are great for understanding Tolkien's purpose for Bombadil.

Letter No. 144

And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally).

Tom Bombadil is not an important person – to the narrative. I suppose he has some importance as a 'comment'. I mean, I do not really write like that: he is just an invention (who first appeared in the Oxford Magazine about 1933), and he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyze the feeling precisely. I would not, however, have left him in, if he did not have some kind of function. I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control, but if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless. It is a natural pacifist view, which always arises in the mind when there is a war. But the view of Rivendell seems to be that it is an excellent thing to have represented, but that there are in fact things with which it cannot cope; and upon which its existence nonetheless depends. Ultimately only the victory of the West will allow Bombadil to continue, or even to survive. Nothing would be left for him in the world of Sauron.

Letter No. 153

As for Tom Bombadil, I really do think you are being too serious, besides missing the point. (Again the words used are by Goldberry and Tom not me as a commentator). You rather remind me of a Protestant relation who to me objected to the (modern) Catholic habit of calling priests Father, because the name father belonged only to the First Person, citing last Sunday's Epistle – inappositely since that says ex quo. Lots of other characters are called Master; and if 'in time' Tom was primeval he was Eldest in Time. But Goldberry and Tom are referring to the mystery of names.

You may be able to conceive of your unique relation to the Creator without a name – can you: for in such a relation pronouns become proper nouns? But as soon as you are in a world of other finites with a similar, if each unique and different, relation to Prime Being, who are you? Frodo has asked not 'what is Tom Bombadil' but 'Who is he'. We and he no doubt often laxly confuse the questions. Goldberry gives what I think is the correct answer. We need not go into the sublimities of 'I am that am' – which is quite different from he is. She adds as a concession a statement of pan of the 'what'. He is master in a peculiar way: he has no fear, and no desire of possession or domination at all. He merely knows and understands about such things as concern him in his natural little realm. He hardly even judges, and as far as can be seen makes no effort to reform or remove even the Willow.

I don't think Tom needs philosophizing about, and is not improved by it. But many have found him an odd or indeed discordant ingredient. In historical fact I put him in because I had already 'invented' him independently (he first appeared in the Oxford Magazine) and wanted an 'adventure' on the way. But I kept him in, and as he was, because he represents certain things otherwise left out. I do not mean him to be an allegory – or I should not have given him so particular, individual, and ridiculous a name – but 'allegory' is the only mode of exhibiting certain functions: he is then an 'allegory', or an exemplar, a particular embodying of pure (real) natural science: the spirit that desires knowledge of other things, their history and nature, because they are 'other' and wholly independent of the enquiring mind, a spirit coeval with the rational mind, and entirely unconcerned with 'doing' anything with the knowledge: Zoology and Botany not Cattle-breeding or Agriculture. [...] Also T.B. exhibits another point in his attitude to the Ring, and its failure to affect him. You must concentrate on some pan, probably relatively small, of the World (Universe), whether to tell a tale, however long, or to learn anything however fundamental – and therefore much will from that 'point of view' be left out, distorted on the circumference, or seem a discordant oddity. The power of the Ring over all concerned, even the Wizards or Emissaries, is not a delusion – but it is not the whole picture, even of the then state and content of that pan of the Universe.

[daeron]

Can someone explain Merry and Pippin's dreams in Tom's house?
I mean, Frodo saw Gandalf trapped and escaping from Orthanc, so is Merry and Pippin's also significant? Note also that Sam was the only one who spent a dreamless night. Are the dreams in Tom's house similar to the Mirror of Galadriel?

[Captain Grishnahk]

I have had this discussion many times with fellow Ringers (LOTR fans) and i have come to the conclusion that he might be Iluvator. Just somthing for you to chew on.... after all; he said that he was there before the first acorn, the first raindrop and before the elves. Of course lots of people disagreed... but i dont see any other option. BTW, i'm new... so forgive me for any stupid thing i've said in the past.

[Eluchíl]

Eh...Wikipedia discussion flashback.

Anyway...Tolkien said himself that Tom was meant to be undefineable. So in that sense he's whatever you want him to be. He is nothing official in the legendarium's world, but yet plays a part in it. He's just...there.

[Gil-Galad]

well i feel that Tom Bombadil is forever a mystery, just a little piece of hope that helps the hopeless regain what they need to do, almost like a final candle

[narfforc]

The name Tom Bombadil was the name of a childs doll, and I believe to be insignificant. I believe the aspect of Bombadil was something within Tolkien himself. The love of all things growing, and the joy of the world itself. If ever a character within a book speaks for the author then Bombadil is Tolkien. The name Iarwain Ben-adar could also relate to Tolkien, for he was also The Oldest without Father, in the earthly way. Bombadil could only say in an earthly way that he had no father, for everything that is, comes from Eru, so spiritually he had a father, unless he was Eru.


I think therefore I am
He lives therefore he is.

Greetings.
What I personally see in Iarwain Ben-adar is the supremacy of Art over the rest of the (tainted) world, during the time of the War of the Ring.
Tom Bombadil's enigmatic yet merry nature is reflected upon the true Artist who is never corrupted by the materialistic progress of the malignant Science (as shown in The Fellowship of the Ring when Tom slips the One Ring on his finger).
His mystery was never solved because of what Tolkien - God bless his soul - believed: that the source of majestic Art is not found in this world.

[Elu Ancalime]

I beleive that Tom Bombadil, like Tolkien mentioned himself is the enigma. He is more of a representation than a literary character, and his meeting with Frodo is more of symbolism than an addition to the plot.
When Tom appears as untempted by the Ring, can see Frodo while he wears the Ring, and so they have no problem giving the Ring to each other, it is like this: Although you may think you know something well, (like for example that the Ring is evil), there is always something that is undiscovered in the world. Treebeard and Tom both say they are both the oldest being, there dosnt have to be contridiction.

"'When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already...'"

Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn...

And so, if my idea stands correct, when Ambar/Arda was created, Tom there already. If he is indeed the 'undisovered,' then as soon as there was wonder and thought and dreams, Tom would be there. But He was before all this.

He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside.'"

When Eru made the Ainur, they were the first non-omnipotent beings. And not being omni-potent, they would wonder and guess and dream, or at least had that lack of knowledge. So Tom was first. And theoretically, when/if all things in Ea are known, and all mysteries uncovered, Tom would be gone, because there would be no more discovery in the world. So technically, Tom would be around at the time of the Music, but not being 'powerfully supernatural', to say not like Gandalf, he was not an Ainu. Theoretically also, one can not learn all there is in nature, since nature is free of human intervention, and is ever-changing. "Nature will always find a way," Ian Malcom said in Jurassic Park. And Tom being nature-oriented, he would then never die; so saying:

Last as he was first, and then there will be night

As said in the C of E, he then only be able to die when all secrets of nature were known, which cannot be, so if that happened, the world would have to end in some way, or whatever 'night' may be.'



I came up with this theor on my own, I haven't read any Tom Bombadil essays It just 'came to me' while reading through E of A's entry of Iarwin Ben-adar.

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Also, in a more specific example, you can view The Ring and Bombadil as a symbol: If Sauron had complete domination (with his Ring of course) over Middle-Earth, and stood unopposed, he could still not make the trees or the earth or the rocks evil. They would not be affected by his rule. And so while the Ring may be the greatest concentration of power, it could not hold power over Bombadil, who seems to be the personification of nature itself. And althogh at the C of E, it was said pertaining to Bombadil as the Ring-Keeper(noy an exact quote)

Even Sauron has found ways to torture the very hills

Sauron can taint hills, water, and air, but he could not make them kill elves, if you know what I mean. As it was saidnot exact quote)

Morgoth could not bend the seas to his will, and so he hated them

(Also assumed that he could nto control the earth/soil, etc) Then if the greastest Ainu could not control the inert factors of nature, surley Sauron could not.
So while Mordor is a bleack, ashen land, I would bet that if Frodo and Sam had traveled nearer to the Barad-dur, Sauron would not make dirt fly up in their eyes. Now he would (could) though, but it would be more like using his powers to release energy in a way (kinda like the Halos) that would act as wind, blowing the dirt. He would not beable to control the dirt telepathically or anything though. I think the 'Powers' (not limited to the title of the Valar) would only beable to have influence over animate/organic beings. (hroa and fea i suppose). And since Tom Bombadil is 'Master,' but not Master of the Lands, he could not use nature as a weapon. So Tom would have indeed been a bad choice to give the Ring to.
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