Who
Is
Tom
Bombadil
?
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I
believe that Tom and Goldberry are Valar. The Silmarillion
and The Fellowship of the Ring give some clues as to who he may be.
Tom and Goldberry were cut from the movie script FOTR and are not not misinterpreted
or represented as they are omitted completely. I have read many of
the online discussions as well as some of the printed ideas. The
Fellowship of the Ring text describes the way Tom handles the ring, He
puts it on and does not disappear as all of the travelers expect him to.
He not only seems uninfluenced by the ring, but amused at the problems
it causes. He even makes it disappear before he gives it back to Frodo,
who not ready to trust that this is the ring he is being given back puts
it on. Tom is still able to see Frodo as the Nazgul do, with the ring on.
Some points that draw my attention follow.
-
Goldberry's washing day to water the forest is evidence
of her great power. She sings the rain song,
-
Goldberry's hand "the light flowed through it like
sunlight though a white shell" suggests that it was not a mortals hand.
-
Tom has a song to move everything as he wills it
seems, "Bombadil is talking" he scolds Old Man Willow not be "waking".
"I'll freeze his marrow cold if he don't behave him self" The Silmarillion
recounts how Middle Earth was created by the song of the Valar. Tom's use
of song to effect things seems to me connected to this very idea.
-
Tom commands the Barrow-wight to be gone and it obeys
him.
-
"Tom was here before the river and the trees" he refers to being
in middle earth before Melkor "the Dark Lord came from Outside".
-
"He is Eldest..." not elf or man or dwarf.
-
" He is ... He is as you have seen him" would he appear differently to
others such as Gandalf. Could he be one of the Blue wizards, another Istari?
Probably not as even Gandalf would not put on the ring.
-
"He is Master of wood water and hill " the realm of his powers defined.
-
" No one has ever caught old Tom" is he a leprechaun also? Who would seek
for him and why? Perhaps Melkor would have desired to use his songs to
control the things of middle earth.
-
My amateur opinion is echoed by scholars and students
of this mater. Some have ventured to guess that Aule of the Silmarillion
or a Maiar may have been Tom.
-
What are the nightly noises and what causes them?
What can they reveal about Tom ? I will venture my guesses soon.
-
I will go on......
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