From: craig@b11.b11.ingr.com (Craig Presson)
Subject: Re: Bombadil
Organization: Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, AL
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 04:09:44 GMT

dickeyml@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Gaelmeth) writes:

>Could someone post a summary of the discussions on Tom
>Bombadil?

I don't have that exactly, but I have collected all the 
quotations I could find that shed any light on JRRT's
little enigma:
(AoTB == Adventures of Tom Bombadil, a poem most availabale in 
_The Tolkien Reader_; BoLT == Book of Lost Tales; BoUT == Book
of Unfinished Tales, etc.)

From a letter JRRT wrote to Mr. Unwin, his original publisher (12/16/37):
"Do you think Tom Bombadil, the spirit of the (vanishing) Oxford and
Berkshire countryside, could be made into the hero of a story? Or is
he, as I suspect, fully enshrined in the enclosed verses? [AoTB]
Still I could enlarge the portrait." [But as we know he got busy with
larger matters and left Tom as is]

and in another to Naomi Mitchison (1954):

"And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there
always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)."
[much later in the same letter]

"Beorn is dead; see vol. I p. 241. ... Though a skin-changer and no
doubt a bit of a magician, Beorn was a Man.
[Someone on a.f.t tried to identify Beorn with TB]

    "Tom Bombadil is not an important person -- to the narrative. ...
I would not, however, have left him in if he did not have some kind of
function. I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a
good side, and a bad side, ... both sides in some degree ... want a
measure of control. but if you have, as it were taken a 'vow of
poverty', renounced control ... then the question of the rights and
wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you,
and the means of power quite valueless. ... Ultimately only the
victory of the West will allow Bombadil to continue, or even to
survive. There would be nothing for him in the world of Sauron."

That seems to have been JRRT's last word on jolly Tom. (there are
more mentions in succeeding letters but IMHO they don't improve on
the above -- Tom was a FAQ back in the days of Fountain-Pen-Net.)

Also, in BoLT, "The Coming of the Valar", we have:
"... with Aule was that great lady Palurien whose delights were
richness and fruits of the earth, for which reason has she long been
called Yavanna among the Eldar. About them fared a great host who are
the sprites of trees and woods, of dale and forest and mountain-side, 
or those that sing amid the grass at morning and chant among the 
standing corn at eve. These are the Nermir and the Tavari, Nandini
and Orossi, brownies, fays, pixies, leprawns, and what else are they
not called, for their number is very great: yet must they not be confused
with the Eldar, for they were born before the world and are older than
its oldest, and are not of it, but laugh at it much, for had they not
somewhat to do with its making, so that it is for the most part a play 
for them; but the Eldar are of the world and love it with a great and
burning love, and are wistful in all their happiness for that reason."

The above gives us a place to attach such beings as Old Man Willow
and Goldberry, and illuminates all of the references to sentient
trees, forests, and places, aligning ME with the "animism" of European
folklore. So, the texts and the glosses point us to the conclusion 
that TB _may_ have been a Maia of Yavanna, or he _may_ have been
"of the freedom of Iluvatar", but do not allow us to choose one
alternative over the other, especially after hearing the author
pronounce him an "intentional enigma".

-- Craig Presson
  "Here is the heart of Elvendom on earth," he said, "and here my heart
  dwells ever, unless there be a light beyond the dark roads that we
  still must tread, you and I. Come with me!" And taking Frodo's hand in
  his, he left the hill of Cerin Amroth and came there never again as
  living man.





Newsgroups: alt.fan.tolkien