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I've linked to this before, but this remains one of my favorite essays about JRR Tolkien's creations.
Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil (http://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html)
Yeah, I'm 99.9% certain that Tolkien really had no intention of anything like this — but, then, that's just what Tom would want me to think, isn't it?
(illustration by the Bros. Hildebrandt, of course)
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Interesting assessment, in any case.
Personally, I always saw Tom as the essential spirit of the forest…as harsh and uncaring as nature itself in many ways–but concurrently as nurturing as a forest can be.
And accordingly, he'd be "bound" by his bounds, not by a spell.
This is fantastic! I was always suspicious that Bombadil and that willow were in cahoots. That whole section of the book struck me as slightly creepy.
An interesting theory, especially since Bombadil appears toward the beginning of the trilogy (or, technically, the sexology).
The first book begins with just a few characters, sometimes doing silly things. By the fifth book, entire armies are moving around, and everyone is speaking in bad imitations of Shakespeare.
You have the dramatic destruction of Sauron in the middle of the sixth book, and the pageantry of crownings and weddings…and then the party retraces its steps. I believe that Frodo says that he feels like he's slipping into a dream again.
With the exception of the departure of the Havens, the story winds down to little bits, with more comic episodes (Sam's fiancée wondering why Sam would leave Frodo when things got serious), with two disturbing incidents right in the middle.
The first is one that I recognized for years – the death of Saruman right at the door of Bag End. This juxtaposition of the familiarity of the Shire and the massive workings of great powers is obviously a major episode in the book.
The second is one that I didn't realize until reading this article – the part where Gandalf leaves the hobbits after the party departs from Bree. It seems like a minor thing – Gandalf having a relaxing talk with Bombadil while the four hobbits go and overthrow a seemingly small-time dictator. But this is a meeting of two extremely significant powers – more powerful than Elrond, more powerful than Cirdan and Galadriel, more powerful than Sauron, more powerful than Morgoth. – and more powerful than Aragorn and his heirs. Like any good author, Tolkien leaves some parts of the story untold, but that little meeting between the funny wizard and the jolly Tom is probably more significant than anything else that happens in the six books.
I wonder if anyone has written any fan fiction about that meeting.
I often suspected that Bombadill and the disappearance of the entwives were related somehow
I still need to read this, but the first paragraphs sound promising. http://www.cas.unt.edu/~hargrove/bombadil.html
This is the mundane truth:
Tom Bombadil was created by Tolkien for children's poetry, a light hearted whimsical character. Later when Tolkien decided to tie his different characters together into one universe he inserted him into Lord of the Rings and gave to him all the whimsical powers he had in the poem.
Tolkien invented Tom Bombadil in honour of his children's Dutch doll, and wrote light-hearted children's poems about him, imagining him as a nature-spirit evocative of the English countryside, which in Tolkien's time had begun to disappear.
https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Tom_Bombadil.html
+Manny Brum That's just what Tom would want you to think …
(No, that makes perfect sense.)
Tolkien was very sensitive and nostalgic about the changes in England — in the countryside, in the yeomanry — during his lifetime, as increasing industrialization and the massive culture shock of the Great War led to so many changes and things being lost. It comes out very clearly in that last portion of LotR (as +John E. Bredehoft noted), with Frodo returning from the war to find his home damaged by progress and, even when it's all rectified, never quite feeling settled again.
+John E. Bredehoft Interesting essay. I'm not convinced that Tolkien as thinking things through that much, but it wouldn't take that much convincing, given his penchant for analyzing and reanalyzing the mythos he'd crafted.
Wicked speculation.
That essay was incredible. Error-riddled, but incredible. Thanks for the link
Yup! He's always creeped me out that
+Manny Brum Yup, but that's why he's reviled by fans: he come from an earlier, less mature style of writing than LOTR where the characters are much more complex.
I've come to think of Bombadil as a type of faerie folk. Most of his powers coincide with the traditional sprites and fairies and dryads who are associated with the elements. Sure there could be more to it…
And bravery or bold of humanity. I think… Or the power of good and willness. Like the most of classic child's hero story.