How do you perceive Tom Bombadil?

[Pitchwife]

skip, I like your rural Irish Tom!

I'd also like to underline something that Lmp said on page one: that Tom is "just right", "a natural extension of the wonder and mystery". He's only an enigma with hindsight, when we see the big picture of rings and kings and wizards and the struggle for Middle-earth. In these days of the internet and Peter Jackson's movies, I'm afraid many readers may come to the book knowing too much of what lies ahead, and are therefore confused by Tom. But try to imagine reading LotR with no foreknowledge except maybe having read The Hobbit, and Tom is no odder than Gollum or talking Eagles or Beorn with his goats or the Elves of Mirkwood. If he doesn't seem to fit in, maybe it's because we have been spoilt like Saruman by thinking too much in terms of plots and power and caring too little for good food and good cheer and nature's wondrous beauty.