Who is Tom Bombadil? - Epic Character History & Middle-earth Explained

Old Tom Bombadil his merry fellow bright blue his jacket ears and his boots ha yellow hey everyone moist in here with a different sort of epic character history for you all today recently I've been getting a lot of comments to do a Tom Bombadil video and I thought that I should put all the facts and possible explanations for this character into one video we'll start with his known history and go into what he could be the result of let's get into it Tom Bombadil were also known as our Wayne Ben Adar by the elves or forn by the dwarves or our auld by the middlemen is a figure of unknown origin and Tolkien's legendarium he lives with his wife gold berry the river daughter in the old forests on the outskirts of Buckland on the west side and the Barrow downs on the east side he has a blue jacket yellow boots and he wears a hat with a feather placed into it usually the feather was a swan feather but he also acquired the feather of a Kingfisher to his wrinkles on his happy face tell of much time passing in his life and his height was less than that of a man or elf but more than that of a dwarf or a hobbit at about five feet tall it seems that Tom lived here since before melkor went east towards middle-earth in the first stage however tom is oldest and fatherless so it is believed that he lived alone in the old forest possibly before the first stage or the times of the Sun and in his land he lived a peaceful life watching over the birds and nature of the old forest he was there when the forests of middle-earth began to decrease and it seems that he met gold berries some time after the elves came East from Beleriand as there are some elvish qualities about the river daughter but it is entirely possible that they met sometime earlier again it's really unrecorded as for gold berry she was also immortal and Tom said that he found her long ago by the pool where he gathered water lilies from the with the Windell River near to his house gold berry had long yellow hair and her voice was a very beautiful kind of soprano I would imagine her height was average she was probably taller than Tom it seems that she was also immortal as she stayed alongside Tom Bombadil now in the letters of JRR tolkien that I'll get to in a little bit later as well Tolkien describes gold berry as the seasonal change and Tom Bombadil as the the English countryside so you can kind of see how the two have an effect on each other so gold berry is the change of of the forest and the nature and the seasons around Tom and Tom is the constant he stays the idea of nature and simplicity among growth Tom kept an eye on old man willow a tree that lures nearby creatures into sleep with his songs and Tom became a friend of those who discovered him at least for those of the free peoples that discovered him and doesn't seem like Sauron Melkor or any of their forces found Tom or even knew about his existence which might have been because of Tom protecting the old forest and his whereabouts he watched the rise and fall of the nearby kingdom of cartola in the Third Age and his powers might actually be the reason that they held so long against the witch-king of Angmar in war time with him we also know that far later in the Third Age Tom and his wife gold berry house Frodo Sam merry and pippin after their encounter with old man willow during their stay tom displays his power over the One Ring by putting it on one of his fingers to no effect and making it disappear and reappear at will Tom comes to the hobbits rescuing the borrowed downs and he finds a brooch to give to gold berry likely from a woman of cartola that he might have actually known once as he says quote here is a pretty toy for Tom and for his lady fair was she who long ago wore this on her shoulder gold berry shall wear it now and we will not forget her end quote this brooch signifies just how old and mystical Tom actually is and how he might have known the people who made the brooch as well as the other items alongside the Hobbit within the burrows Tom Bombadil is mentioned in the Council of Elrond as a potential keeper of the One Ring by Elrond who met him long before after Frodo reminded him of Tom's existence during the recount of his tail before arriving to Rivendell but Gandalf counters saying that Tom would likely lose the ring as he has no care for it or its powers on others because it has no power on him to him it's just another trinket and the last we hear of tom is actually after the war of the ring when Gandalf spends time with the MAS gatherer as he's called and finds that he wouldn't care to hear about the Lord of the Rings or The Return of the King from the hobbits but he would actually likely only be interested in hearing about the ants and tree beard as well as Fangorn forest itself thus afterwards nothing has heard about Tom or his gold berry in the book entitled The Adventures of Tom Bombadil nothing can really more be learned about Tom as it is a collection of poems on nature in middle-earth as well as a few other topics throughout Tolkien's legendarium Tom seems to be an embodiment of a natural power of the earth and he is the literary counterpart of the ant tree beard in many different ways they're both called the eldest being in middle-earth and they're both masters and guardians of two separate forests and both tree beard and Tom wants to remain neutral in wars and politics and take only the sight of nature and the forest but both are dragged into participating in the war of the ring by necessity for life and preservation or by charity to save other beings that they come to care for now let's get into some theories and possible explanations of who Tom might actually be it is widely speculated that Tom could be a maiya or even a Vala as he is called the master and the eldest I know what you all might be thinking well he can't be a Vala as they're all accounted for and which Mayo would he be as most of them are accounted for and have names and different histories and lures but to that I say that the theory is definitely a possibility as in literature the personification of a certain idea or aspect is a very common motif and it is possible that Tom is actually a personification of Vala or even Aluva Tarr himself on middle-earth because Aluva Tarr doesn't really take a form in Vallon or anything like that he just kind of is as an Almighty God would be but it could be that alongside of being he also exists as Tom Bombadil just to kind of be within his creation and it's possible that just one of the Aisne or or a god or Vala could want to put themselves on middle-earth directly against maybe the will of others but they would want to see with the human form the nature of their creations as long as they remain mostly neutral and secluded from wars and people's it's definitely a possibility another theory and one that I really like is that Tom is a personification of the song of the Aisne or or the song of creation that manifested the world through the voices of the Aisne or I really like this theory and it would explain his love for music and songs and singing but again how could it be that he's not accounted for among the eye nor but it is definitely possible that just like with a conductor not knowing about an overtone or a discord until he hears it and likes it it is possible that Tom was just kind of an unexplained and unanticipated byproduct of the song of the Aisne or something that maybe even Aluva Tarr himself didn't plan there are many more theories out there and arguments for and against each theory but truly we will never know as Tolkien purposefully left him as an enigma of his fantasy as he says quote and even in a mythical age there must be some enigmas as there always are Tom Bombadil is one intentionally end quote this is stated in one of the letters of JRR tolkien number 144 dated at 1954 I want to end the theory section of the video on a head-scratcher for you guys is it possible now this is just speculation on my part and there might be direct contradictions to this possible theory but this is something that I was thinking about on my own as I was making this video is it possible that the fááá-- or spirit of Tom Bombadil is the same FEA or spirit as Treebeard thus making him the same being as Treebeard or Fangorn it's interesting and it would make actually a lot of literary sense for the two characters to actually be one because they have a lot of similarities that both connected very well they're definitely literary parallels for each other they both protect forests they have encounters with hobbits but among other free peoples they both have good relationships with Gandalf I don't know it's just something but now I know that there are differences between the two characters as well and it's just speculation on my part as well truly never know I do like that they are two different characters and indeed Treebeard considers himself to be a free person on the old list and Tom doesn't consider himself to be so there are definitely arguments against and for this theory so it's just an interesting thought to keep in mind the next time you read about those two characters and the next time you do look for similarities between the two it's pretty interesting actually my literature teacher taught me to look out for these connections and I hope you all do as well it makes reading anything all the more interesting let me know what you all think about these theories in the comments below what do you think could be true for Tom and what do you think is completely false let me know ultimately Tom Bombadil serves to personify the power of the passive guardian of nature if we all serve the world around us and come to love nature as Tolkien did will find that the ideas of lust and power and greed to control and dominate others just aren't that appealing at all anyways thank you all for watching I hope this video was able to answer a few questions I want to thank so many of you for recommending this and so many other topics that are to come before making this video I was actually planning to do my next epic character history on Samwise Gamgee and I'd still really like to make that video if you guys all wanted within the next few weeks it would be a rather short video as there isn't much to tell about Sam that we don't get in our Lord of the Rings but I could definitely go into his full history and analysis of you all would want me to in the end it's your call join us on Facebook through the link in the description for updates on the channel and other middle-earth news leave this video like if you enjoyed it and share it with a friend who you think might like it thank you guys for watching and joining me on this adventure until the next one my friends

Channel: Men of the West

Views: 662,240

Keywords: Tolkien, LOTR, Tom Bombadil, Iarwain Ben-Adar, Goldberry, The River-Daughter, Men of the West, Epic Character History, Orald, Forn, Old Forest, Legendarium, One Ring, Council of Elrond, Yoystan

Id: UrFaRYJ7sSw

Length: 10min 44sec (644 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 23 2017