LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 06 – The Old Forest

[Bombadil]

Previously posted by Estelyn:

The hobbits have only just left the Shire and already encounter danger not from the Ring or the Riders, but from a hostile environment that has nothing to do with Sauron’s influence,

this is an odd chapter to me because of the absence of such evils. It almost felt like Tolkien placed this scene in afterwards, or that he used this point in time to introduce the enigma Tom Bombadil. Does anyone know if anything of the sort occurred? I know he re-wrote riddles in the dark in the Hobbit at one point, was this chapter always in his plans?