[Lord Of The Rings Essay] Who was Tom Bombodil?

Mythlore/Beyond Bree | August 1986 | Gene Hargrove

[JameRetief]

I posted this in response to an inquiry on another thread, but I thought the other Ring fans might be interested in it as well.

[JameRetief]

I saw that you had some questions about how Bombadil "fits" into the story on another thread so I posted this to give you and others some insight that might help. Quite long, but well worth the read.

[ecurbh]

Ring Ping!!

[camle]

if you view LOTR as a parallel for WW-II, Bombadil is Prince Phillip(?) the one who gave up the throne, then played games with both sides in the hope of regaining power.

I might have the name wrong...

[JameRetief]

Tolkien himself states in the prologue of the novel that he was not drawing a parallel to the World War. But it is interesting how it does seem to do so.

[HairOfTheDog]

Thanks for posting it!

[ksen]

Thanks for posting this essay Jame! Bookmarked for later reading.

BTW, how's life in the diplomatic corps treating you? ;^)

ItsOurTimeNow, weren't you asking about Tom Bombadil the other day?

[ItsOurTimeNow]

ItsOurTimeNow, weren't you asking about Tom Bombadil the other day?

I was, and thank you for the ping!

So, to make a long story short...no one really knows except Tolkien himself?

I can live with that...

[ksen]

So, to make a long story short...no one really knows except Tolkien himself?

That's about the size of it.

[Varda]

bump for later

[JameRetief]

how's life in the diplomatic corps treating you?

Let's just put it this way, the implacable Graoci have been rebuffed and sent back to the Minority offices. Like I always say, sometimes quiet diplomacy just doesn't work. :-)

[rightwingreligiousfanatic]

Thank you for posting this excellent analysis. I've bookmarked it for further study. He covers virtually every possible angle.

It seems that Tolkien wanted to impress upon us, and upon his "creation" (Middle Earth), the fact that there are mysteries that are not readily solvable, and that there are forces at work in the world that we don't (and may never) fully understand.

For some reason, I am reminded of the passage in the Bible about Elijah who, when weary from battling the priests of Baal, and feeling alone in the fight, was reminded by God that He had reserved for Himself thousands who had not bowed their knees to Baal. In otherwords, the Creator has reserved and hidden good forces within His creation for His own purposes.

[BibChr]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting it.

Dan

[dd5339]

Long but good read!

Semper Fi

[lds23]

Bombadil is my favorite character in Tolkein, although he seems like he would be more fitting in Farmer Giles.

Technically (cynically?) I'd say one of Tom's functions is to be the vehicle to get some fragments of nice poetry and beauty Tolkein had on his mind into print.

In terms of the story itself, I'd tend to explain Tom in terms of what the battle is all about - that part of the world the Quest is fighting to save. While the men have kingships, the wizards have planes, the dwarves have natural resources, the Hobbits have the Shire etc. etc. to defend or gain, they all are fighting to preserve a way of life.

To take it to the realm of Christianity, the devil seeks power over the earth - the ultimate control-freak. By contrast Tom represents that almost Eden-like joy of living, immersed in nature, in monogamous love (Tom and Goldberry seem as if each is the only other person in the world for them), a song in his heart. In other words, the way God meant for man to enjoy his earthly paradise.

But that's just my humble opinion.

[Samwise]

Thank you for posting this most intersting article. I read only part of it, but I will come back to it and finish it.

What I have read so far rings quite true.

[dark_lord]

Hey, I didn't "lose", I just gave up my interest in jewelry.

:-)

[Skywalk]

Actually, wasn't most of LotR written before the war began? I've heard it would have been more modelled on Tolkien's experiences in the Great War, which is where he got some of his ideas about power, control and industrialization vs. agrarian life.

I had a good number of discussions with various liberts/conservatives/anarcho-capitalist libertarians about how some fans of things like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings have no clue about the real themes in these works, because if they did, they would not be socialist totalitarians.

I've noticed there's a lot bigger LotR contingent on FR than any political site(namely our Dem counterpart) Frankly, that's probably because the themes appeal more to us, who are not interested in power(except the Drug Warriors ;) over others, whereas the left tends to be of the Vader/Sauron/Saruman variety.

[Cronos]

ping