LotR Books: What is Tom Bombadil?

[Zappo]

I say he's Great Cthulhu in disguise.

 

[Dinkeldog]

No quotes since I don't have my book available to dig up.

I think Tom is a Maiar that came to Middle Earth before the Elves woke up. I don't think Aule is the right answer: Tom shows no interest in the Dwarves.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I didn't intend to disparage your scholorship in general, Colonel. I was actually sort of relying upon it. The fact that you don't have a quote is a bit telling, I think. Tolkien has a habit of telling us the names of Maiar. Even those who don't directly appear, like the missing Istari. That suggests to me that if Tolkien had wanted Tom to be a Maiar, specifically, he'd have mentioned it somewhere. If we have to classify him by the "well, perhaps an unfleshed Maiar would be immune to the Ring, so he's a Maiar" is pretty darned weak, so peerhaps we should avoid taking that step, hm?

That's how I classify him, but it's all a matter of opinion. I just used deductive reasoning, but that doesn't mean I'm right. Here's how I reason it: the Ring was made to increase Sauron's power, and dominate the other Rings. There is never an instance that I know of in which a Maia is ever affected by anything less than a Silmaril, which the Rings, by extension, must be. Tolkien specifically mentions that the Istari are clothed in flesh so as to have the same weaknesses of Men, which includes the temptation of the Ring. Which means that Maiar are generally not subject to such weaknesses when not in fleshly form. The fact that Gandalf stopped off to talk to Bombadil, apparently as an equal, seems to further bolster the Maia argument. That's just my own reasoning, not anything official. I don't think it's weak reasoning, but I acknowledge that it may not satisfy anyone but me. Tolkien created Bombadil based off a toy of his kids, to use in children's stories. Fitting him into the cosomology of Middle Earth is not exactly easy, as apparently even Tolkien felt, based on his isolating Bombadil and keeping him out of things.

 

[Claude Raines]

Tom Bombadil was, IIRC, Tolkien's cat, who got his name into the book early while LotR was still more fairy-taleish (like the Hobbit).

Anyway, in the book I think it's obvious that he's a maia.

Tom Bombadil existed for at least 3 years or more before LoTR was even started. The poem "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" is a rewrite of a poem originally published in The Oxford in 1934. Old Man Willow is also a concept from this time and Tom himself gets caught in the crack. (See The Return of the Shadow for this info.)

Tom Bombadil was originally introduced as an aborigine (not the kind in australia). In the earliest writings of The Simarillion, it is stated that when the world was created, many spirits of nature and the world were also created at the same time. These were not Valar or Maiar, but also named as Nermir, Tavari, Nandini, Orossi, brownies, fays, pixies, leprawns and are part of the world at its creation. They inhabited the land before elves and men awoke. (See the Lost Tales Vol. 1 for this.)

It is quite possible that Tom Bombadil is a remnent of these spirits that did not make it into later rewrites of the Simarillion. It is stated in the letters by Tolkien that he himself wasn't entire sure of who or what Tom and Goldberry were. As another interesting footnote, for a short while Farmer Maggot was concieved of as a creature in the same vein as Tom Bombadil.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Claude, I was still under the impression that Tom was one of the Maiar. Goldberry was the River's Daughter, and it would make sense that she would be one of the nature spirits. Tom seemed to be a bit more than that to me.

 

[Claude Raines]

Claude, I was still under the impression that Tom was one of the Maiar. Goldberry was the River's Daughter, and it would make sense that she would be one of the nature spirits. Tom seemed to be a bit more than that to me.

Well, I won't claim to be the absolute authority on Tolkien or Tom Bombadil, but it is known from Tolkien's letters that he did not quite know who or would not say who Tom Bombadil is. At the time of writing FoTR he definitely put quite a few curious and possibly wrong statements about Tom, some of which survived to final form (Read Return of The Shadow). For more info consult The Encyclopedia of Arda. It has a good dissertation about Tom and links to further information.

 

[Green Knight]

According to a friend of mine who's much more knowledgeable about Middle Earth Lore than I am, and who's even gone so far as to read Tolkien's letters, Tom Bombadil is apparently Iluvatar/Eru or whatever the name of the god of Middle Earth, is (Never read the Silmarillion, so I don't know much of the backstory and never caught the name). In other words, Tom's the Supreme Being. Which is why the ring has no power over him. Didn't Gandalf refer to him as the Master at one point? Haven't read the books in years, so I don't exactly recall.

Anyway, next time I talk to him I'll ask him where exactly one can find this information. But I tend to believe him when he says that Tom Bombadil is essentially God.

 

[shilsen]

According to a friend of mine who's much more knowledgeable about Middle Earth Lore than I am, and who's even gone so far as to read Tolkien's letters, Tom Bombadil is apparently Iluvatar/Eru or whatever the name of the god of Middle Earth, is (Never read the Silmarillion, so I don't know much of the backstory and never caught the name). In other words, Tom's the Supreme Being. Which is why the ring has no power over him. Didn't Gandalf refer to him as the Master at one point? Haven't read the books in years, so I don't exactly recall.

Anyway, next time I talk to him I'll ask him where exactly one can find this information. But I tend to believe him when he says that Tom Bombadil is essentially God.

Bombadil doesn't show up (at least definitely not by name) in the Silmarillion, and I think it's a little too much extrapolation to regard him as Iluvatar. There are references to him being "Master of wood, water, and hill" (that's what Goldberry says), but on the other hand, during the council of Elrond, there are a number of statements about the fact that he cannot withstand Sauron alone, and that he "cannot alter the Ring itself" (Gandalf). Doesn't seem appropriate for God, and that's what Eru is in Tolkien's mythos.

On the other hand, I've always liked a little line which Goldberry throws out when Frodo asks who Tom Bombadil is. She says simply, "He is". Now if he were Eru, what else could one say?

 

[Claude Raines]

According to a friend of mine who's much more knowledgeable about Middle Earth Lore than I am, and who's even gone so far as to read Tolkien's letters, Tom Bombadil is apparently Iluvatar/Eru or whatever the name of the god of Middle Earth, is (Never read the Silmarillion, so I don't know much of the backstory and never caught the name). In other words, Tom's the Supreme Being. Which is why the ring has no power over him. Didn't Gandalf refer to him as the Master at one point? Haven't read the books in years, so I don't exactly recall.

Anyway, next time I talk to him I'll ask him where exactly one can find this information. But I tend to believe him when he says that Tom Bombadil is essentially God.

The one thing Tolkien HAS said explicitly is that Tom Bombadil is NOT Eru/Iluvatar. Read the link in my last post in this thread.

 

[Umbran]

Here's how I reason it:

Well, let me reduce the verbiage a bit, and perhaps you can see my problem with it.

Posit - Unclothed Maia are probably not subject to the temptations of the Ring.
Observation - Tom Bombadil is not subject to the temptations of the Ring.
Conclusion - Bombadil is a Maia.

Now, this would be fine, if we had any indication at all that only unclothed Maia could resist the ring. But we don't. Tolkien doesn't attempt to be comprehensive in his bestiary, and occasionally sloppy in trying to wedge earlier works into later classifications. He frequently referrs to powerful things in the world that even the Wise know little about....

So, what's the more reasonable choice - apply a classification to Bombadil that Tolkien didn't, or leave him unclassified?