Of Bombadillos and Balrogs

[Eol]

The subject concerning Tom being a maia...the anwser is very simple...there is no direct anwser. Someone either stated this in a previous comment or I read it somewhere that Tom was a prexisting character before Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings.The case of having a prexisitng character is that there are unseen gaps beause they are developed differently then the rest of the surrounding characters.
There are many things that cannot be clarified because the author himself does not know for sure himself. I have the same flaws with my own fictional characters...