Re: LOTR

In fact I think in one of his letters, JRRT mentions TB as the spirit of the
Oxfordshire countryside - I believe in a reply to an attempt at an early
film, where he takes umbrage (quite rightly!) at TB being referred to as an
"Old Scamp". He may have been some sort of genius locus at the time, but he
seems to have taken on a life of his own!
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lars Henrik Mathiesen" <thorinn@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2001 9:09 PM
Subject: Re: LOTR


> > Date:         Sat, 10 Nov 2001 20:06:21 +0000
> > From: Dan Jones <dan@...>
> >
> > John Cowan escreva:
> > >Indeed. There are a number of crackpot theories: Tom is God (Eru
> > >Iluvatar), Tom is Aule (one of the chief Valar), Tom is the Lord of
> > >the Nazgul (have you ever seen them together?).
> >
> > I think his Sindarin name "Iarwain Ben-Adar" gives a clue "The oldest
> > without father", maybe he's the first man. Because he can be understood
by
> > everyone no matter what language they speak- he's escaped the curse of
> > Babel. This is T.A. Shippey's theory, BTW, not mine.
>
> My impression, from reading the material available to me 20 years ago,
> was that Tom Bombadil was created with the world, co-eval with it, by
> the fancy of Iluvatar. He is thus outside the need to create or to
> preserve himself and can live absolutely in the moment. The big events
> of the world must pass him by --- no nazgul can enter his woods, but
> neither does a wizard care to go there.
>
> And he speaks in metre because he is the sort of being that does that.
> Given Tolkien's fascination with Old English verse, I would not be
> surprised to learn that the Valar among themselves speak always in
> metre complex beyond mortal understanding.
>
> But that's just how I think Tolkien made him fit into the worldview of
> the Silmarillion. The next question is, why (except for storytelling
> purposes) should this unique being live right next to the Shire, in a
> little patch of woods? I'd have expected to find him in the sunniest
> glens of the most majestic mountains, east of the sun and west of the
> moon.
>
> So perhaps, in original conception, he is more like a genius of the
> ancient English countryside, just as the Shire is the lost, innocent
> English rural community that never was.
>
> Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT
marked)