The Dark Side of Tom Bombadil

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Sir Kohran

On a slightly different note, I do find it interesting that Tolkien writes that Frodo feels He was perhaps a trifle annoyed with Tom for seeming to make so light of what even Gandalf thought so perilously important. It's interesting that Tolkien himself instills a tiny, but present 'dark side' to Tom - for all his wonders he is not perfect and has the (albeit small) potential for evil just like any other.

I'm not sure I understood your point. Do you say that there was a "dark" thing on TB, and that it was that he could take the Ring too lightly? I don't see what's "dark" on it: dangerous for the others, yes, but I think that if every person in ME were like Tom (that they could ignore the Ring like him), then the Ring won't have any power over them, thus, this would be victory.

[Finduilas]

I think the reason that Frodo was slightly annoyed with Tom for that, was because he personally held it in high esteem. After all, he couldn't throw it into the fire when Gandalf told him to...

Would it be possible that Tolkein had written the Tom Bombadil poems, before he had made out his character, and so when he added him to LotR he just partially ignored his former poems, and made a new character? Or were the Bombadil poems writen after?

[The Might]

I am definitely not a Bombadil expert, since he never interested me that much, I was content leaving him as what he is meant to be - an enigma.
But as far as I know The Adventures of Tom Bombadil were published in 1962, but he already existed as a character before.
What I have however learned in a very interesting thread a long time ago, he is in M-e, but not of M-e, more like an outsider, an intruder in the world.
The explanation for his existence is of course hard to find, most likely a product of the music in the beginning, but he was actually more like "thrown" into the world by Tolkien.