He is not a hobbit, neither a man, but what is he? Is he a dwarf? A wizard? A god? Something else entirely?
I can’t answer what Bombadil is in the lore of LOTR, he seems to be unique in terms of entities we are shown. But I can tell you what he is at a meta level. You see, LOTR was first told as stories to Tolkiens kids, which you probably already knew, which you may not have known, is that Bombadil was a recurring character in previous stories he had told his children. So at a meta level, Bombadil is just a fun callback to a previous character for his kids to have enjoyed.
So, Hoid of a sort
Thank you for indirectly leading me to discover the book title “The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England”. Even if I never work my way to finding out anything further about this corner of literature, that title certainly tickled me.
It’s a really fun read. Sanderson gets some hate from literary snobs for his simple writing style but sometimes that’s the style of story you need.
(Raises an eyebrow) Who has a problem with Brandon’s writing style?
Edit: FYI this comment was meant to rag on him for his writer’s tic of having his characters raise a single eyebrow on every other page. Personally while I like many of his stories, his prose has been distractingly awkward at times.
I had an issue with him finishing the Wheel of Time series.
He doesn’t have the same grasp of description that Jordan had. That is the same problem I have with the Amazon Prime adaptation. The series adaptation is taken by people who haven’t really been immersed in the books.
In the book The Great Hunt Thom opines about the idea of players acting out stories vs. the oral storytellers. In reading the original Jordan books his descriptions make you see every blade of grass and feel the wind on top of the towers.
I do admit Jordan drags on at times, especially during Lord of Chaos, but some people enjoy the more descriptive words over the simplistic writing.
He’s not a bad writer, but I’m not a big fan of his style
“Serious” literature and fantasy fans often don’t like him.
I don’t think he’s great.
He has a simple writing style? I tried reading his books a long time ago and found them overly wordy. Has he adapted?
Title is great, but I didn’t read that one yet because there’s no Hoid in there. I want to complete the Cosmere reread first.
Except Hoid has/will have a story of his own.
A Proto-Hoid for children
This comes closest of the answers in this thread, imo. Tom Bombadil was a figurine/puppet Tolkien or his kids owned and he would devise stories around it. He included it in the main narrative as a sort of mental resting point, where both the reader and the hobbits come at peace for a brief moment. It’s completely separate from the main narrative and it doesn’t cleanly fit in the story. I think of it as Tom Bombadil, Goldberry and their house basically being in another dimension, which is why neither time nor the ring affect them.
If you are interested in it, Tolkien discussed the nature of Tom Bombadil in several letters and there are some decent youtube videos on the subject.
I believe he is considered the spirit of that world, not necessarily a god, but a physical incarnation of the world. It would explain why he holds an insane amount of power and even Sauron’s ring only tickled him. It also makes sense when Gandalf says if Mordor conquers the rest of the world then maybe bombadil would fall because the world would be irreparably harmed
I never thought of him being immune to Sauron as him being powerful. He is just like the the hobbits but to its fullest. Bombadil is perfectly content with his own existence and there is nothing for the ring to tempt him with.
I would argue power of will is also power in its own.
so samwise gamgee IS the most powerful being
So why didn’t the eagles take him…
Just kidding! Don’t want to open that can of worms.
Lol
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As far as I know Tom is left as an enigmatic character and never explained. Just a strange encounter to make the world seem larger and more mysterious.
I don’t think that was the intention.
He’s Q but it’s TLOTR
That’s blasphemy, but funny
Blasphemy is always funny
Do we know for sure that Star Trek and LOTR don’t play in the same universe?
In Star Trek Enterprise, there’s an episode where the crew finds a planet being ravaged by disease. Bizarrely, the planet has two humanoid species: one dominant (intelligent, technologically advanced) and one less dominant (less evolved brains). The captain mentions that in every planet they’ve encountered, only one humanoid species survives the process of evolution.
Well, it turns out that the disease is genetic, it only affects the currently-dominant species, and they will go extinct in a few centuries because of it. The same evolutionary phenomenon that explorers encountered countless times before on other planets was happening right before their eyes.
Middle Earth has like at least 3 humanoid species (Man, Elf, Dwarf), more if you count Hobbits and Orcs. That’s totally incompatible with Star Trek lore!
Well when we see the story of LotR, the elves and dwarves are disappearing - maybe it’s the Trek rule happening in front of us again! Orcs certainly don’t seem to fare well during it either. Hobbit are disappearing too, if they’re to be counted as separate to humans at all. It’s very much becoming a world of humans when the plot of LotR happens
But you just explained it yourself. Currently there >1 humanoid species on planet “Middle Earth”, but over time there will likely only be 1 for one reason or another (diseases, dominant races doing the good old genocide, etc.)
So either the Enterprise / Federation hasn’t found the planet yet (and it will become the first planet with this many humanoid species on it) or LOTR and ENT simply don’t play at the same time.
Yeah, LOTR and Star Trek being in the same universe doesn’t mean they play out at the same time and in the same place. Maybe LOTR takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. . . .
What is this, a crossover episode?
What about the Xindi?
Maybe the other races don’t count as “humanoid”? The dolphin people definitely wouldn’t be considered humanoid at least, neither would the ents in middle earth I guess.
Would say Tom is chaotic-good, while Q on the other hand might be chaotic-neutral?
Why didn’t he give the hobbits some neat gadgets then?
He did, wraith-killing swords for example.
Good point. I wasn’t thinking when I posted that.
He’s a merry fellow, bright blue his jacket is and his boots are yellow.
Hey dol merry dol, ring a ding a dillo
Tom represents the incomplete knowledge of mankind and our pre-modern inability to firmly grasp the natural world we live in (and to some extent our continued struggle).
The fantasy world of Middle-Earth is in most ways supernatural to our own. So how much more incomplete would our understanding and knowledge of it been?
Tolkien was a professor of language and mythology and steeped in the ancient epics of the Anglo-saxons and Norse cultures. His career was putting together what these people knew and how they saw the world, but also what they couldn’t understand and how they explained their ignorance.
Others here are hinting at what Tom is, but not why he is. He’s a manifestation of ignorance. That’s why pinning him down is so tricky. It’s like pointing at a shadow with a flashlight.
Very good analogy. Questioning Tom Bombadil’s role in Middle Earth is the reason Tolkien included him, in my mind at least. The reader sees him as mysterious, mystical, alien, and seemingly detached from the world around him. And we try to fit him into the rest of the world, but not everything fits into nice little boxes. Some aspects of life will always be unknowable. The same goes for history and myth, which Tom seems to be very related to.
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I like this answer. Mine would’ve been “spirit of nature incarnate” or similar, but this captures why I think that.
Tom Bombadil is trustworthy in that he was understood to be incorruptible by the ring. However, he wasn’t a trustworthy holder of the ring because he’d probably lose it because he didn’t feel the gravity of it. Tom Bombadil is good and trustworthy, but ultimately uncontrollable.
He is a character who is not connected to the main conflict in the story in any way, and is meant to show that the world of middle earth is much larger and more mysterious than what the hobbits/men/elves/orcs are fighting over. His back story was left as a mystery on purpose. The simplest explanation to accept is that you’re just not supposed to know.
There is a whole lot of fan theory and actual letters from Tolkien himself explaining (or rather not explaining) the character.
A merry fellow, of course, he says so right in his song
Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master: His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.
What is there not to get?
Some had suggested he was the spirit of “JRR Tolkien” placed into his own book
Bilbo is sort of covering for the professor too
Yes, certainly, as the writer of “There and back again”
Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the master: His songs are the stronger songs, and his feet are faster.
Also a linguist would of course dedicate a chapter to the pure joy of rhymes, verses, and words that feel fun to say
He’s just a supremely powerful being (nameless thing, perhaps) who was created at the same time as Arda and who is just content living in a forest singing all day about how hot his wife is instead of caring about anything that happens in the world around him.
The question is, what is his wife, Goldberry? She appears to be a personification of nature, Arda, or just the Old Forest or something.
Old primordial nature spirit that is a physical manifestation of the worlds untamed wilderness and magical possibility
a nature spirit, yeah?
You got some great answers already here. I’ll just say that according to Wizards of the Coast he is a God.
“Eldest, that’s what I am… Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn… He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside.”
