Who the hell is Tom Bombadil?
If your familiarity with Tolkien’s Legendarium comes entirely from the movies, your mystification is easily explained – he wasn’t in the films. At all. He joins a list of characters – Glorfindel, Radagast the Brown, Prince Imrahil, Elladan and Elrohir – cut from the film story for a variety of reasons.
But if you have read The Lord of the Rings, you are no doubt still asking the question. Who is Bombadil? And if you have hope that reading The Silmarillion or The History of Middle-earth might give you an answer, prepare for more disappointment.
Bombadil generates more pages of academic and fan speculation than even the absurd Balrog Wing Controversy. Here’s a quick rundown of what we do know about this enigmatic and mildly annoying literary figure.
Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow; bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. He lives in the Old Forest just beyond Buckland, east of The Shire; and he is either unwilling or incapable of leaving the forest. He dwells in a house there, on the River Withywindle, with his bride, Goldberry the River-daughter.
Pursued into Buckland by the Black Riders and desperate to get to Bree, the four Hobbits decide to cut through the Old Forest. It’s a place of fear for most Hobbits, but Merry’s family is familiar with the forest, at least with parts of it. Disaster strikes when Merry and Pippin are trapped by the evil Old Man Willow, a semi-sentient, semi-mobile tree. Frodo’s cries for help bring Tom Bombadil a-running, and it quickly becomes apparent that this strange man-like entity can control or dominate anything in the Old Forest by singing to it.
The Hobbits stay with Tom and Goldberry for a few days, and Tom demonstrates that the One Ring has no effect on nor hold over him. Then the Hobbits head on their way –
–until they become lost in the fog and are kidnapped by the Barrowwights of the Tyrn Gorthad or Barrow Downs. Frodo sings a song to summon Tom Bombadil, who throws opens the barrows, scatters or dispels the ancient wights, and pulls the Hobbits back out into the sun. The Hobbits each get shiny new Elvish blades from the treasure pile, and Tom decides to personally escort the Halflings to the Road. He will not however leave his land to give them any further aid.
Bombadil makes no further appearances in LOTR, although he is discussed on two occasions. At the Council of Elrond, it is decided not to trust Bombadil with ensuring the security of the One Ring; and as the Hobbits approach the Shire on their return home, Gandalf takes his leave to go visit Bombadil (and to let the Hobbits handle certain problems in The Shire without wizardly interference).
Bombadil also appears in several poems Tolkien wrote, with elements consistent with the version of the character, as well as the Middle-earth locales, that appear in LOTR.
All of Bombadil’s names (except the nonsensical “Tom Bombadil”) mean “Eldest’; and it is implied several times that Bombadil is the oldest being in Arda, although other mentions would give that honor to Sauron or Treebeard. His Sindarin name, for instance, Iarwain Ben-adar, means “eldest and fatherless.” Certainly some kind of mythological background is implied here, even if it’s not provided.
Where did Bombadil come from? As a character, Tolkien based him on a Dutch doll owned by his children. The creation of Bombadil far predates LOTR, and Bombadil was included in the story from the first draft. He was one of Tolkien’s favorite creations, and he included Tom in LOTR solely for personal satisfaction.
But there are two problems with including Bombadil in LOTR. The first is narrative. Bombadil serves no purpose in the story. Indeed, he stops the story cold, plucking the Hobbits out of danger like a deus ex machina and holding the action hostage for almost three chapters.
He even undermines the tone of the story by eliminating the dramatic tension built up to that point. The One Ring doesn’t affect Bombadil, so why is it so important again? And the Barrowwights are clearly servants of the greater Darkness in the East, like the Ringwraiths – yet Bombadil can dispel them with a simple song. The kind of person who asks why Frodo didn’t fly Eagles from Rivendell to Mount Doom might also ask why Bombadil doesn’t do everyone a favor and throw the Ring in the Fire himself! (This last point is answered at the Council of Elrond, but Bombadil’s indifference to the suffering of countless people worldwide kind of makes him out to be a real dick.)
The second problem? Tom Bombadil does not fit into the Legendarium. At all.
Fans and scholars have suggested that Bombadil is (a) the spirit of the British countryside, (b) a forest spirit, (c) a wayward Istar or Wizard, (d) an angelic Maia or Vala, or (e) even Eru Ilúvatar or God itself. As far as that last interpretation, it’s hard to interpret “eldest and fatherless” a different way. Plus, when asked who Tom is, Goldberry replies “he is,” which echoes the “I am That Which I Am” quote that marks Yahwist archetypes from the Hebrew God to Popeye the Sailor Man.
But Tolkien denied all these interpretations, and none of them really fit. The truth is, Tolkien didn’t bother to make Bombadil fit into his universe, because he didn’t care to do so. Tom Bombadil is in The Lord of the Rings because Tolkien enjoyed writing about him, and I think for no other reason.
From Tolkien’s Letters: “And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally).”
More info: for info about the image, read this, then this; and watch Stephen Colbert and Neil Gaiman throw down over Bombadil on The Colbert Report.
It certainly keeps the interest and speculation going for Tolkien’s works not to have a simple identification for Tom Bombadil. I like the enigmatic quality of his character, and the fact that he isn’t a ‘savior’ type throughout the book. It forces Frodo’s hand in a way, making him that much more responsible for the ultimate destruction of the Ring, without a ‘guardian angel’ to help him along. Frodo has no one but Sam to help him at the end, there are no Istari or Maia to lend supernatural assistance. Tolkien wanted it that way.
Nice article, but I have to take exception with the idea that Tom’s a dick for not destroying the ring. He doesn’t understand the threat, according to the council. He would be an irresponsible ring bearer not because he’s a dick, but because he’s incapable of understanding why its important. He only has a mind for the things in his own forest.
Thanks for the article. It is nice to read other people having a problem with this character. After many years as an exclusive Scifi reader and having seen the LOTR movies I am finally reading the books.
I have to say that I agree completely with the article. The character of Tom undermines the world of LOTR mainly because it reduces the importance of the ring and it’s effects on most of the population of middle earth. In fact, in order to deal with this black spot on a white page issue, I have had to rationalize or contrived explaination that Tom’s simple nature and territorially limited power (only seems to have dominion within the old forest area)would make him ill suited to keep the ring forever. He could for example be manipulated by the dark forces into giving up the ring and leaving the area (and his powers) by say kidnapping Goldberry or setting fire to the forest. In fact, one could speculate that Tom may not want to hold the ring if offered simply because he may forsee that by so doing it he may be putting in jeopardy his very existence in his precious forest. In any event having the character of Tom in the LOTR makes the series less grandiose in it’s literary importance within the world of literature.
Erestor, I think (my copies of the LOTR are downstairs someplace, lost in the endless confusion of my library), points out that the power to defy Sauron is not in Bombadil, since Sauron has tormented and twisted even the hills themselves. It seems to be accepted lore that Bombadil is some kind of Earth Spirit, as is Goldberry, his wife. Tolkien describes them as creating a joy that is closer to the mortal heart than the high glory of the Elves. Be that as it may be, however, remember that the War of the Ring is entirely hopeless unless the Ring be destroyed: something no one seems able to do, as the Ring becomes so powerful within the Sammath Naur that no one in its thrall (any Ringbearer … or Gollum) can possibly bear to so much as consider harming the filthy thing. And all of Aragorn’s armies would have been blown away by Sauron’s endless hordes of orcs, trolls, wargs, gore-crows, the occasional watcher-in-the-water, and the odd balrog. Sauron was set to win (and very nearly impossible to stop) without the Ring. Hence, Gandalf’s premise that the rediscovery of the Ring is both their greatest hope (they can destroy it and completely cripple Sauron) and their greatest fear (Sauron might recover it and become utterly invincible—the most powerful Maiar left in Middle-Earth, restored to his full power, as he was in the Beginning). Giving the Ring to Bombadil would thus accomplish nothing at all, except to keep Sauron from obtaining his former power until after everyone else had been destroyed or enslaved. Someone at Elrond’s council (I think it might be Gandalf himself) even says so: Bombadil would fall, last as he was first, and then the night would come. You could say the same thing about Elrond keeping the Ring at Rivendell (and someone does, in fact, discuss returning to Imladris, where the Ring would have to stay, the Elven refuge then becoming an island in an inevitably darker world until the end. Frodo offers to leave the Ring with Galadriel, which she is able to refuse (although it takes everything she’s got to do so—the usual cost of refusal (cf. Bilbo)). The only difference between these people and Bombadil is that the Ring has no power over Tom (although it is an almost irresistible temptation to everyone else), nor, it is worth remarking, over Goldberry (who obviously knows about Frodo’s quest, but never sees Sauron’s Ring (she opts goes to bed, instead) and plainly does not care). Thus, the power of Sauron is insufficient to affect Bombadil or his wife; but, conversely, Bombadil’s power is insufficient to affect the Ring. Whatever Tom is, then, he is invulnerable to the wiles of Sauron’s “trinket.” Is he, perhaps, Sauron’s equal? (or equal to the power Sauron poured into the Ring?) If he were Sauron’s superior, then he probably could have simply marched to Mordor and overthrown him. That he does not suggests that Bombadil’s position in the Legendarium is equal to or less than that of Sauron, who began as one of the Maiar of Aule (hence his interest in the Earth and its riches: iron and gold, mithril and gems). Bombadil seems to have the same sort of connection to the Earth, but without any desire for control or dominion; he simply enjoys what there is: sunshine, autumn leaves, water lilies, and Goldberry.
Tolkien’s boxen (a CS Lewis coinage for what Tolkien called a “subcreational world”), however, does not allow for the existence of any beings aside from Iluvatar, the Ainu (comprising Valar and Maiar of whatever level), the Eldar, the Atani (that’s us humans, of various lineages and races), the Khazad, and the twisted ones: Orcs and Trolls. The various tribes of other races—ents and eagles, e.g.—are manifestations of the preexistent Ainur. Recall that most of the Ainur stayed with Iluvatar; only an adventurous few entered into EA (that’s our universe). Nor does Tolkien ever tell us that Iluvatar ran out of thought to make more Ainur from. Moreover, he calls both Elves and Men “the children of Iluvatar.” All life and all procreation are apparently emanations of the mind of Iluvatar, which is (or gives rise to) the “secret fire” of creation. So, of course the Valar, the Maiar, the Eldar, the Atani, the Ents (if they knew where the Entwives had gone (north of the Northfarthing in the Shire, if the gossip in the Green Dragon means anything)), the Dwarves, and even the orcs, could reproduce according the pattern created by Iluvatar (by which he has given a portion of the flame imperishable to all his Children, and to all of his creatures in the brute creation as well). It’s not like there is a shortage of spirits or Divine Thought to create them.
But I digress: Given our limited choices, Bombadil must be an Ainu, created by the mind of God. He says—and he has no reason to lie—that he remembers the first things, grass, raindrops, and the night being fearless, before the dark lord came from outside (that’s melkor, the slimy bastard). The only choice we have (aside from choosing not to choose … as Tolkien himself evidently did) is that Bombadil is an Ainu so excited by the little kingdom of Arda that he shot right down into it as soon as it was … um, open.
Oh, and I have to disagree (courteously) with those who think that Bombadil somehow detracts from Tolkien’s work. It most certainly does not reduce the book’s literary merit. To believe so intimates that all such asides are mortal wounds to any piece of literature. The entire episode of Bishop Myriel and the old Napoleonic fellow (“Conventionary G—-”) is irrelevant to the story Hugo tells in Les Miserables (well, it is … unless you really want to understand the Bishop’s character as those whom it was originally for did). And all that surplusage about Waterloo and the sunken road of Ohain is completely unnecessary to the same extent. Bombadil may not fit the niceties expected by the readers of the 21st century—and even Tolkien himself believed Bombadil an “enigma” which he had placed in the book on a whim—but, for me, it opens the mind of Tolkien like nothing else in the book (the rest being cut of the same cloth, so to speak). It has always been, again for me, “On Fairy Stories,” “Leaf by Niggle,” and _The Lord of the Rings_, especially Tom Bombadil, to see the world as Tokien saw it … (and probably still sees it beyond the grey rain curtain under the swift sunrise).
wow. I’m sorry, guys: I talk way too much.
Actually, I found it enlightening and probably the best placement for Bombadil in the universe that I’ve read.
This may be way off the mark, and I stick by the theory that he simply is, but I also gave Bombadil much thought during my reading. In fact, just as he stopped the plot in its tracks, he stopped my reading just so I could think about him. At first I ran to the easiest solution; that he is immortal and all powerful, but it seemed so hollow, so I entertained a new notion.
I was reading up on another favorite of mine in preparation for the new movie, Skyfall, and the idea of the codename James Bond 007 rattled in my brain as if it were trying to make a connection I wasn’t yet aware of, when it hit me. What if Bombadil is simply a codename? A guise under which several individuals of an undocumented race, containing one lineage and an unbelievable array of uncanny abilities. Each successor is appointed as the next Bombadil and awarded these powers, with which they uphold the sacred oath of indifference. The Bombadil exists only to exist, and that has raised suspicion and anger in the other races. Maybe fair elven princesses of nature are chosen to accompany the next Bombadil on his steady journey, and together they create the next one out of the energy of the land.
This theory is sort of absurd, I know, and perhaps it has been brought up before, but I thought it was fun to imagine.
Ian, I think your “just-is” interpretation is delightful! I’ve been sitting here thinking about each new Bombadil and the covenant of indifference. It reminds me of Dr.Who’s own rebellion against the Time Lords’ observe-but-never-interfere policy, which is also the Star-Trek prime-directive rule (which the fans’ favorite characters bend, balk at, challenge, defy, or openly flout). Oh, what a story could be made of a reluctant Bombadil. Brilliant. Thanks.
DOUOCHEBAGS ALL OF YOU
YOU FUCKING MORONs. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT U DO WITH BOMBADIL. WHY DONT U GUYS STFU
All I know is, Bombadil is annoying.
I was hoping there’d be a deep meaning to explain it, but it appears he’s annoying and there’s no cause for it.
Thanks for at least making it clear that I wasn’t missing something obvious from anglo-saxon mythology or arthurian legend.
Tom Bombadil has a really important role in the story, he provides the Hobbits with weapons that will allow one of them to destroy Witch-king in the future (blades of the Barrow Downs with ,,spells for the bane of Mordor”), Frodo also has some prophetic dreams and visions in his presence. Tom explains their swords origin to the hobbits (but they don’t pay attention to it), and hints that there are still descendants of ancient kings (Aragorn). Also I don’t think the ring’s influence is downplayed by his appearance. It affects Bombadil in a way and the ring reacts at the Bombadil’s touch (it shrinked suddenly, as if in fear that Tom would control it), he put it on his finger but didn’t become invisible which is significant, Tom was curious about it and wanted to experience it’s effects, much is made of Tom’s being ,,the Master” and we know that the Ring is trying to dominate all it’s wearers (except for Sauron to whom it’s rightly belongs) so it’s a test for him, occasion to see if he is still able to decide about himself. The temptation the ring uses are specifically directed towards individual interests, Tom has none interest in power (he has enormous one in the forest). Also he isn’t bound to the forest, he only choses to remain there (boundaries which he himself set).
Ohh I forgot the other ,,in-universe” function of the merry fellow :) is to contain the threat of evil wights and entities in the forest such as Old Man Willow. He is around for an uncounted ages, he wandered freely through Eriador, met lots of peoples (how otherwise he would have so many names, Orald by northern men, Forn by the dwarves, Tom Bombadil by hobbits), he had dealings with Wandering Companies of elves, Gildor Inglorion, rangers knew him, he was a friend with farmer Maggot and his family, he could even recall the beauty of some Dunadan princess or lady, the memory stirred by jeweled brooch from the Barrows (he knew detailed history of the Dunedain kingdom in the North), Elrond remembers him from the very ancient times. So he is mysterious but not without deeper meaning in the story.
if Bombadil is pointless (arguendo, as attorneys say), what is Beorn for?
i agree with fantasywind. the movie left a BIG plot-hole hanging wide open by not including Tom Bombadil, or at least giving SOME background to the nameless, “orc-killing Noldorin daggers” given to Merry and Pippin