Tom Bombadil: Unreliable Narrator?

[geoffrey]

Aug 28, 2021 4:12:47 GMT -6 tdenmark said:

There are many interesting theories on Tom Bombadil. He is a real puzzle. I don't think we'll ever know just what Tolkien was thinking with that character. He is strangely inserted into the narrative. Doesn't have much to do with the larger story. And is such an odd personality.

Perhaps readers sometimes overthink The Lord of the Rings. Less than a year after the publication of The Hobbit, the publisher asked Tolkien to write a sequel. He did not know what to do with a sequel, so he began to experimentally meander about with a tale. Early on one of his children's dolls with yellow boots found its way into the story: Tom Bombadil.

I suspect that Tom Bombadil is little more than a largely unassimilated character in the larger narrative. I do not think that Tolkien had some deep and profound meaning for the character. I think of Tom as neither more nor less significant than a sort of magical Barliman Butterbur.

We also should remember that J. R. R. Tolkien himself was not thoroughly satisfied with his works. Years after the publication of The Lord of the Rings, he wrote in a letter that he thought the book was "good in parts". We do not do Tolkien a disservice by thinking that some of The Lord of the Rings has little significance.

[tkdco2]

It's possible that Tolkien probably didn't have anything more in mind for Tom (and Goldberry) aside from serving as a Deus ex machina for the Hobbits. It seemed like a good addition to the tale -- and it is -- so he included it.

[talysman]

Just watched a video the other day where someone proposed the idea that Bombadil (and Goldberry) is the spirit of the world itself, rather than an extradimensional entity like the Valar and Maiar, or a lesser being like elves and humans. Which would explain why he is so powerful, and yet not in charge of anything the way the Valar/Maiar are.