Derry Dol, Indeed

[Mister Underhill]

The point that I was making was that his interpretation as the "spirit of the vanishing Oxford countryside" does not explain the nature of his existence within the mythology any more than the "Bombadil as reader" theory.

The problem with trying to shoehorn Bombadil into an explicable, seamlessly logical place in the mythology is that it can’t be done. Tom being the anomaly that he is in fact provides a rare instance where Tolkien is willing to cop (albeit grudgingly) to allegory (Letter 153; cf. Letter 144). Tom embodies, if anything, an idea or a certain point of view to which Tolkien wished to give expression.

Tolkien freely admits on a number of occasions that Tom was inserted, nearly as-is, in his pre-existing form. To the extent that he is “integrated” with the legendarium, it was done after the fact, an exercise which Tolkien seemingly didn’t feel compelled to spend too much energy on.