Elementals

[Inziladun]

Hm. I'm inclined to discount this just based on a couple of items.

Quite rightly the reader is entitled to be a little perturbed. Here we have the unusual situation of a rambunctious wrinkly old man cohabiting with a beautiful young maiden who exhibits a degree of worrisome servility.

I am not 'perturbed', nor do I find any evidence of 'worrisome servility' at play there.

Goldberry actually corrects Tom when he's ready to feed the hobbits the first night, telling him they hadn't had a chance to wash up.

To make matters worse, comic relief was added of the strangest kind in belittling the power of the Ring.

I don't see that scene as 'comic relief', but rather a revealing statement about Bombadil: he, though a part of the physical world, is able to distance himself from it spiritually to an otherwise unseen extent. And as is made clear later at the Council of Elrond, Tom could still not keep the Ring in Sauron's despite indefinitely.

The sight of Tom's blue eye looking through the Ring has to me just been a symbol of Tom as Sauron's opposite, in a way. Tom, I think, had that in mind for Frodo particularly, though his motive for doing it is admittedly obscure.

Really though, the author of the piece seems to misread some elements of the book to the extent that I question her conclusions about the material.