#vestisferrea

[elucubrare]

vestisferrea replied to your photo: I was playing with my stress ball and then picked...

Neither Roman, nor holy, nor an emperor?

entirely accurate, hélas 

[elucubrare]

vestisferrea replied to your post: Morgoth, Treebeard, and Tom Bombadil

I also like Tom Bombadil. He’s enigmatic, as he should be. Not everything requires an explanation.

Congratulations, you've unlocked My Thoughts on Tom Bombadil! 

First, let's get this out of the way: the movies were absolutely right to cut him; he wouldn't have transferred well. 

Now: Tom Bombadil is the perfect bridge between the world of the Shire and the world outside, which is full of peril. He's apparently a jolly old man, taking part in the world of The Hobbit, which is a children's book; but of course he's also got one of my favorite passages in the whole trilogy: 

Suddenly Tom's talk left the woods and went leaping up the young stream, over bubbling waterfalls, over pebbles and worn rocks, and among small flowers in close grass and wet crannies, wandering at last up on to the Downs. They heard of the Great Barrows, and the green mounds, and the stone-rings upon the hills and in the hollows among the hills. Sheep were bleating in flocks. Green walls and white walls rose. There were fortresses on the heights. Kings of little kingdoms fought together, and the young Sun shone like fire on the red metal of their new and greedy swords. There was victory and defeat; and towers fell, fortresses were burned, and flames went up into the sky. Gold was piled on the biers of dead kings and queens; and mounds covered them, and the stone doors were shut; and the grass grew over all. Sheep walked for a while biting the grass, but soon the hills were empty again. A shadow came out of dark places far away, and the bones were stirred in the mounds. Barrow-wights walked in the hollow places with a clink of rings on cold fingers, and gold chains in the wind." Stone rings grinned out of the ground like broken teeth in the moonlight.

It prefigures all the beauty and terror of the rest of the series, as well as reaching back into the history of Middle Earth; he was there, he knows all the stories, but he's not quite part of it, as shown by the fact that the Ring has no power over him. 

He's both absolutely canny, providing the first sanctuary on the hobbits' journey, and completely uncanny: 

"When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside."

So, he's a good encounter for the hobbits and for the reader: a proof that not everything is perilous - and a proof that everything is. To quote Sam: "It strikes me that folk takes their peril with them into Lórien, and finds it there because they’ve brought it. But perhaps you could call her perilous, because she’s so strong in herself."

Tom Bombadil is also strong in himself, and perfectly contained; he has his domain and doesn't venture out of it. And yet, he is part of the world - the hobbits carry the daggers from the Barrow-Downs for the whole trilogy; Merry strikes the Witch-King of Angmar with one of them. 

And everything he says is beautifully rhythmic, a song in prose: 

"What?" shouted Tom Bombadil, leaping up in the air. "Old Man Willow? Naught worse than that, eh? That can soon be mended. I know the tune for him. Old grey Willow-man! I'll freeze his marrow cold, if he don't behave himself. I'll sing his roots off. I'll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. Old Man Willow!"

It's lovely to read, either out loud or to yourself. 

All that is to say: I think it's both a necessary and a beautiful section of the book. 

[fyeahpeterlorre]

You're right! Thanks for the insight. I even found this illustration on his wikipedia page here.

(hope this helps, anon?)