this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2024
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Not this one. Also I've seen it a hundred times on Reddit.
Probably a pretty open ended question and discussion on wtf Tom Bombadill is with another deeply knowledgeable LOTR nerd.
I tend to like the interpretation that he's Sauron's opposite. Completely free of desire and will to dominate.
Disclaimer: not sure I would call myself a "deeply knowledgeable" LOTR nerd.
I will happily mind your disclaimer but there's a critical event that really makes this character truly bizarre. He wears the ring and doesn't give a damn - all of Gandalf, Giladriel, and Sauron himself are affected by the rings. Gandalf and Sauron are possibly on the same "power tier" as Maia (Galadriel is lesser but still psychicly impressive). It's arguable that Gandalf is a false Maiar and actually an avatar of Manwë but Tom's nonchalance with the ring likely puts him above the Maia - Tom could be a Vala but it's really unclear who he'd be (possibly Lórien but its unlikely) due to his relation to Goldberry and disposition ... They're all well known and it's unlikely they could evade detection in Arda... it's possible that Tom Bombadill is Illúvatar himself which lets us handwave a lot of issues but that makes Goldberry even more confusing... also everything more powerful than a Maiar is sworn to (or restrained from) interfering in Arda.
Tolkien was a dedicated world builder and also a myth teller and we might just have to accept the unfulfilling explanation that Tom Bombadill is the mysterious guide that defies explanation and that's all there is to it - his character is completely isolated from the rest of the mythos and this from a nerd who has a detailed lineage of kings for Gondor including the "not at all relevant to the story" kin strife of Castamir... so I reject any claims that Tolkien just "forgot" about Bombadill - the omission of history was clearly intentional.
Anyways, I've spouted off like a nerd long enough. It's an excellent topic to delve into and there are some great hints pointing one way or the other.
Bombadil, like Ungoliant and the “nameless things” seem to have been left intentionally unexplained, though I’m no Tolkienologist.
I would find it difficult to believe Tolkien ever left much of anything unintentionally unexplained in Middle Earth.
Nanannanaa nananana nana freed from desire
Now I have that song stuck in head for the day
The Tom Bombadil stories were separate from Middle Earth when Tolkien wrote them. Tom is just a cameo from Tolkiens other works. He's a minor character put there because Tolkien liked him and thought he fit. For the sake of the story any elf could have done, Tolkien could have wrote in any major character or made up a new minor one. He chose Bombadil because he didn't have a use anymore in his own, older stories and Tolkien wanted him to live on happily ever after in Middle Earth. Tom was first, those stories came first, he is Eldest, conceived before the first acorn of Middle Earth, before the trees and lamps. He lived on past the death of his own universe and settled in Middle Earth. That's why is not affected by the laws of Middle Earth, his ways are older and stranger. Goldberry is a Maiar who knows all this.
I suspect he is the embodiment of Arda Unmarred, ie. unspoilt nature.