Tom Bombadil

[Halfir]

Belin: I think you make a very important point when you say of Gandalf and Elrond: "(they) talk as if they didn't really understand him."If Gandalf - a leading Istari - soon to be transformed into Gandalf the White, and Elrond Half-Elven, one of the most important Elven lords, don't know who Tom is, then I see that as fairly conclusive evidence - by inference - that he cannot be Valar or Maia, or a traditional ME character. If he were, they would know.And, as you say, he is one of a kind.

I agree that Tom will always be Tom, but part of the joy is that we are always in pursuit of the enigma- and in that pursuit so many other interesting revelations and ideas come to light. I also believe that from an intensive reading of the text that surrounds Tom in LOTR, and of the other Bombadil writings, canonical or not, together with precursor images of Tom in Lost Tales and other Tolkien writings, Tom as a being standing outsidetraditional ME classification shines through, as does Tom as a, if not the, spirit of Nature.

Birdland has previously perceptively observed that Tolkien treats Tom far more gently as a nature spirit than other characters in the story, where 'nature raw in tooth and claw' emerges more strongly. As I posted in response I think Tom's charcter represents Tolkien's view of nature as he discerned it through the vistas of the English countryside, which is a much less threatening image of nature than that say of the jungles of Amazonian Brazil.