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)

Replies