Tom Bombadil is the unsung hero of the War of the Pellenor Fields. Without the hobbits having met him and been imprisoned in the Barrowdowns, thus forcing Tom to rescue them, Merry would not have received the sword he used to stab the Witch King in the knee which allowed Eowyn to then cut his head off; as Tolkien stated in the Return of the King "no blade could have hurt him as deeply"(paraphrased). There are zero unneeded characters in Tolkien's work let alone the character who provided the weapon that eventually turns the tide in the War of the Ring.
Another option, of course, is that Tolkien *is* just a writer...and was figuring it out as he went along, throwing an oddity in there that breaks genre and structure for the way we view fiction nowadays. I love 'Bombadillo' and Goldberry dearly, but it's clear to me from Tolkien's letters that he had a great deal of trouble tonally with the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring... he was exploring whatever came to mind, and the 'final' story hadn't taken shape properly yet. He was trying to write a 'sequel' to The Hobbit, and as you pointed out, the songs alone speak for themselves. It's worth noting also that Tom Bombadil existed before The Lord of the Rings, in Tolkien's poems, which he had to rewrite in order to align them with LOTR... Bombadil really is a unique creation all to himself, perhaps even something of a private delight and inside joke to Tolkien.
At some point, I started thinking of Tom and Goldberry as Adam and Eve before the fall. Not sure where I stole that idea from, but I enjoy reading those passages much more now.
That’s so kind of you to say, Benjamin! While I can’t say quite say I wrote it for you, I will not deny that past comments of yours made me think of you a number of times during the writing, so some of it, at least, was written with you in mind!
Hey, I hear you may be a Word Guy. If you ever happen to have any clever ideas for how I might rebrand this Substack, I would love to hear them! (“A Word About…” is a great one!)
Have you considered simply merging the two elements under consideration as SDG's Grey Havens? That way you get to keep the SDG identify you've established and add something that's distinctive, familiar (to some/many), and of course memorable.
I think the "Man on the Moon" was a mistake that should have been struck from the Prancing Pony chapter.
Tom, though, I would not call a mistake, even if he perhaps could have been better integrated into the tale. The reason he works for me is a single, special moment: When he puts on the ring and fails to turn invisible. It's such a wholesome moment that shows, as you wrote, the essential goodness in creation itself. It widens the sense of the world to be so much greater than just this one fight with one Dark Lord in this one era.
Tom has a lightness of being not unlike Peter Sellers in Being There, except he's not unintelligent. He's not a fool; he's an old man who long ago ran out of fucks to give, and over the centuries he got so good at living life that life has run out of fucks to fuck with him. He's also Zeus, playing among mortals, not out of boredom but out of love.
But he's also a silly character whose shenanigans strike at around the time I think most readers will expect the narrative to start escalating its pace and its stakes. His role as an unexpected ally is redundant with Farmer Maggot. The rescue from the barrow white is redundant with the rescue from the old willow, which itself was already a bit redundant with the hidings from the Dark Riders. And his songs are redundant with Bilbo's.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Steffee! I love your dual comparisons to Chance and Zeus.
I agree that the moment that Tom puts on the Ring and proceeds to demonstrate its lack of power over him is a key moment—one that, for me, warrants his inclusion not only in Middle-Earth, but specifically in The Lord of the Rings. That moment wouldn’t carry the same weight in The Hobbit, because in The Hobbit Bilbo’s magic ring is not yet the One Ring of Power.
That moment aside, I agree that Tom fits better in the sensibility of The Hobbit than The Lord of the Rings.
Tom Bombadil is the unsung hero of the War of the Pellenor Fields. Without the hobbits having met him and been imprisoned in the Barrowdowns, thus forcing Tom to rescue them, Merry would not have received the sword he used to stab the Witch King in the knee which allowed Eowyn to then cut his head off; as Tolkien stated in the Return of the King "no blade could have hurt him as deeply"(paraphrased). There are zero unneeded characters in Tolkien's work let alone the character who provided the weapon that eventually turns the tide in the War of the Ring.
Another option, of course, is that Tolkien *is* just a writer...and was figuring it out as he went along, throwing an oddity in there that breaks genre and structure for the way we view fiction nowadays. I love 'Bombadillo' and Goldberry dearly, but it's clear to me from Tolkien's letters that he had a great deal of trouble tonally with the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring... he was exploring whatever came to mind, and the 'final' story hadn't taken shape properly yet. He was trying to write a 'sequel' to The Hobbit, and as you pointed out, the songs alone speak for themselves. It's worth noting also that Tom Bombadil existed before The Lord of the Rings, in Tolkien's poems, which he had to rewrite in order to align them with LOTR... Bombadil really is a unique creation all to himself, perhaps even something of a private delight and inside joke to Tolkien.
At some point, I started thinking of Tom and Goldberry as Adam and Eve before the fall. Not sure where I stole that idea from, but I enjoy reading those passages much more now.
Now I want a “Bombadil Belongs!” T-shirt.
How about "The Greydanus Havens"? That kind of pun, though, might seem irreverent to you considering how sacred the Grey Havens are in Middle-Earth.
I still just REALLY want to know WHAT Tom Bombadil is!!!
I’ve tried armadillos, Grace, and I’m all out of ideas!
This one feels as if it were written just for me, and even though/if it weren't: Well, that was just a treat. Thanks!
That’s so kind of you to say, Benjamin! While I can’t say quite say I wrote it for you, I will not deny that past comments of yours made me think of you a number of times during the writing, so some of it, at least, was written with you in mind!
I’ll take it!
Hey, I hear you may be a Word Guy. If you ever happen to have any clever ideas for how I might rebrand this Substack, I would love to hear them! (“A Word About…” is a great one!)
Have you considered simply merging the two elements under consideration as SDG's Grey Havens? That way you get to keep the SDG identify you've established and add something that's distinctive, familiar (to some/many), and of course memorable.
I have thought about that approach! Maybe I will go that route. Will keep contemplating…
I think the "Man on the Moon" was a mistake that should have been struck from the Prancing Pony chapter.
Tom, though, I would not call a mistake, even if he perhaps could have been better integrated into the tale. The reason he works for me is a single, special moment: When he puts on the ring and fails to turn invisible. It's such a wholesome moment that shows, as you wrote, the essential goodness in creation itself. It widens the sense of the world to be so much greater than just this one fight with one Dark Lord in this one era.
Tom has a lightness of being not unlike Peter Sellers in Being There, except he's not unintelligent. He's not a fool; he's an old man who long ago ran out of fucks to give, and over the centuries he got so good at living life that life has run out of fucks to fuck with him. He's also Zeus, playing among mortals, not out of boredom but out of love.
But he's also a silly character whose shenanigans strike at around the time I think most readers will expect the narrative to start escalating its pace and its stakes. His role as an unexpected ally is redundant with Farmer Maggot. The rescue from the barrow white is redundant with the rescue from the old willow, which itself was already a bit redundant with the hidings from the Dark Riders. And his songs are redundant with Bilbo's.
He should have been a character in The Hobbit.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Steffee! I love your dual comparisons to Chance and Zeus.
I agree that the moment that Tom puts on the Ring and proceeds to demonstrate its lack of power over him is a key moment—one that, for me, warrants his inclusion not only in Middle-Earth, but specifically in The Lord of the Rings. That moment wouldn’t carry the same weight in The Hobbit, because in The Hobbit Bilbo’s magic ring is not yet the One Ring of Power.
That moment aside, I agree that Tom fits better in the sensibility of The Hobbit than The Lord of the Rings.
Yes, agreed!