Who is Tom Bombadil?

the origins of the merry fellow and his wife

“Old Tom Bombadil was a merry fellow;

bright blue his jacket was and his boots were yellow,

green were his girdle and his breeches all of leather;

he wore in his tall hat a swan-wing feather.”

-from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, J.R.R. Tolkien

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Song suggestion for today’s read.

This week’s deep dive is on one of the most fascinating and delightfully open-ended characters within Tolkien’s legendarium: Tom Bombadil. To some, this character may feel out of place within the serious tone of the story. While all around is a growing sense of dread and weight, he capers into the narrative with nearly non-stop singing and constant jigs in his blue jacket and bright yellow boots.

But who is he and what is his purpose?

Tom Bombadil by Tim Hildebrandt

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Hello and welcome to Many Meetings, the heart of Tolkien-dom on Substack!

I’m Breanne, a new-ish substacker, but a lifelong Tolkien fan. This space is one I’ve created to welcome others into these beautiful stories, sometimes on walks with my dog and sometimes in a quiet corner of your inbox.

When I’m not doing read-throughs, I also post essays and deep-dives inspired by the works of Tolkien like this one. Enjoy!

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Something you might find interesting is that the character of Tom Bombadil originally existed outside of Tolkien’s concepts of Arda.¹ According to the book, ‘The Adventures of Tom Bombadil’: “His name was given first to a Dutch doll' - a toy made of jointed wooden pegs - owned by one or more of Tolkien's children and dressed exactly as Tom is described in The Lord of the Rings…” (intro page 10)

Tolkien first put the character in fiction when poems of his were published in Oxford Magazine in 1934—twenty years before the publication of The Fellowship of the Ring. And it was during the writing of The Lord of the Rings, that Tolkien would decide to insert Tom Bombadil into his grander mythology.

Tom Bombadil’s ‘Power’

Tom undeniably has great power over the natural world through song² and none residing within the realm he’s set for himself can disobey his command. And yet, he has no lust for power, even approaching the idea of it with child-like naivety. He is called Eldest and Fatherless³ and there appears to be evidence that he was residing in Arda long before even the Valar came to dwell in it.

All of this has led many to theorize that he is perhaps the physical incarnation of Eru Ilúvatar or one of the Valar. I’ve even read articles stating where the author believes that, “Tom is and was the most powerful entity in Arda at any time in its history”. And to that I say: let’s go to the text—and Tolkien’s own words on Tom—to see where we land.

• In letter 144 to Naomi Mitchison, Tolkien writes:

“Tom Bombadil is not an important person - to the narrative. I suppose he has some importance as a 'comment'. I mean, I do not really write like that: he is just an invention (who first appeared in the Oxford Magazine about 1933), and he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyze the feeling precisely. I would not, however, have left him in, if he did not have some kind of function. I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. but if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless. It is a natural pacifist view, which always arises in the mind when there is a war. But the view of Rivendell seems to be that it is an excellent thing to have represented, but that there are in fact things with which it cannot cope; and upon which its existence nonetheless depends. Ultimately only the victory of the West will allow Bombadil to continue, or even to survive. Nothing would be left for him in the world of Sauron.”

• In addition Tom tells the Hobbits himself near the end of the chapter, ‘Fog on the Barrow Downs’: “Out east my knowledge fails. Tom is not master of Riders from the Black Land far beyond his country.”

• And, at the council of Elrond when it’s proposed by Erestor to send the Ring to Bombadil because within the bounds of his little land “nothing seems to dismay him”, Glorfindel and Galdor respond:

  “But in any case," said Glorfindel, "to send the Ring to him would only postpone the day of evil. He is far away. We could not now take it back to him, unguessed, unmarked by any spy. And even if we could, soon or late the Lord of the Rings would learn of its hiding place and would bend all his power towards it. Could that power be defied by Bombadil alone? I think not. I think that in the end, if all else is conquered, Bombadil will fall, Last as he was First; and then Night will come?

  'I know little of Iarwain save the name, said Galdor; 'but Glorfindel, I think, is right. Power to defy our Enemy is not in him, unless such power is in the earth itself. And yet we see that Sauron can torture and destroy the very hills.”

While it’s fun to theorize, Tolkien clearly stated in multiple ways that Tom was not some all-powerful being existing incognito to work mysteriously on the fringes of the story. How could Bombadil be “all powerful” when the limits of his power are mentioned repeatedly and Tolkien wrote multiple times stating that a victory from Sauron would be the end of him?

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Fair River-daughter!

In the first passage of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil we learn that Tom met Goldberry when he went down to the River Withywindle. His beard dangled in the water and Goldberry took hold of it. After some teasing from Goldberry, Tom commands her to let him go and Goldberry releases him.

Tom Bombadil and Goldberry by Pauline Baynes

“Back to her mother's house in the deepest hollow

swam young Goldberry. But Tom, he would not follow;

on knotted willow-roots he sat in sunny weather,

drying his yellow boots and his draggled feather.”

—from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, J.R.R. Tolkien

Tom eventually returns to “catch” Goldberry and they have a “merry wedding”.

Goldberry’s nature and origins seems as wrapped in obscurity as her jovial husband, but it appears Tolkien hints that she is some kind of river spirit. A maia perhaps? Nothing is confirmed.

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Is Tom Bombadil God?

“ 'Fair lady!' said Frodo again after a while. 'Tell me, if my asking does not seem foolish, who is Tom Bombadil?'

'He is, said Goldberry, staying her swift movements and smiling.

Frodo looked at her questioningly. 'He is, as you have seen him, she said in answer to his look. 'He is the Master of wood, water, and hill.’ “ —The Fellowship of the Rings, Chapter: In the House of Tom Bombadil, J.R.R. Tolkien

Goldberry's response of, “He is.” to Frodo’s inquiry has led some to speculate that Tolkien may have been alluding to the God in the Old Testament declaring Himself, “I AM THAT I AM.” In fact, Peter Hastings asked Tolkien about this very thing. Here’s how Tolkien responded in September 1954:

“As for Tom Bombadil, I really do think you are being too serious, besides missing the point. (Again the words used are by Goldberry and Tom not me as a commentator). You rather remind me of a Protestant relation who to me objected to the (modern) Catholic habit of calling priests Father, because the name father belonged only to the First Person, citing last Sunday's Epistle - inappositely since that says ex quo. Lots of other characters are called Master; and if 'in time' Tom was primeval he was Eldest in Time. But Goldberry and Tom are referring to the mystery of names. See and ponder Tom's words in Vol. I p. 142.

You may be able to conceive of your unique relation to the Creator without a name - can you: for in such a relation pronouns become proper nouns? But as soon as you are in a world of other finites with a similar, if each unique and different, relation to Prime Being, who are you? Frodo has asked not what is Tom Bombadil' but 'Who is he'. We and he no doubt often laxly confuse the questions. Goldberry gives what I think is the correct answer. We need not go into the sublimities of 'I am that am' - which is quite different from he is. She adds as a concession a statement of part of the 'what'. He is master in a peculiar way: he has no fear, and no desire of possession or domination at all. He merely knows and understands about such things as concern him in his natural little realm. He hardly even judges, and as far as can be seen makes no effort to reform or remove even the Willow.” - from Letter 153, J.R.R. Tolkien

It seems as though Tolkien wasn’t particularly fond of “pinning Tom down”. And he certainly didn’t intend for him to be an allegory of God from the Bible.

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Hey dol! Merry dol!

“And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally).” —J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 144

Tom plays his (important!) part of rescuing the Hobbits and giving them—and the reader—a beautiful place to recover and gain courage for the next phase of the journey. Before escorting them to the bounds of his land, he equips them with daggers found in the barrow-downs⁴ and sends them on their way. They enter back into the fight wiser (and more rested) than they were before entering the Old Forest.

But that’s where his purpose—however beloved or interesting—ends. He isn’t secretly one of the Valar. He’s not “pulling the strings” to make events happen. He’s not “the most powerful being in the legendarium”. After reading Tolkien's notes on him, I would argue that projecting power onto Tom Bombadil is missing the point of what the author intended completely. Tom is the antithesis to power.

All of this lands me solidly in the camp of who Goldberry describes him to be: “He is.” and nothing more.

Perhaps he’s a nod to a doll Tolkien’s children played with inserted into the story. Perhaps he’s one of the unnamed Maia. Perhaps he’s the manifestation of the songs and spirit of Arda itself. At any rate, I’ve grown to accept Goldberry’s description of him and move on with the story. Not everything has to be explained and unraveled.

I find Tom’s presence in the story one that invites us to sit with the concept of mystery and the beauty of it; a far more compelling perspective than any concrete answer we could land on.

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1. “Arda” is the term for the physical world in Tolkien’s legendarium, i.e., the planet.

2. The use of song is an extremely powerful force in Tolkien’s world. In The Silmarillion, the world was sung into existence by Eru Ilúvatar and many characters use it for both good and evil. Tom wielding song to fight Old Man Willow and the barrow-wights isn’t some trite thing, it’s an ancient form of magic.

3. 'Who are you, Master?' he asked.

'Eh, what?' said Tom sitting up, and his eyes glinting in the gloom. 'Don't you know my name yet? That's the only answer. Tell me, who are you, alone, yourself and nameless? But you are young and I am old. Eldest, that's what I am. Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside.’ —The Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter: In the House of Tom Bombadil, J.R.R. Tolkien

4. Because these daggers were forged specifically to take down the Witch King with spells equipped to do so, Merry’s dagger becomes vitally important in the Battle of Pelennor Fields when he stabs the Witch King and breaks the spell that holds him together, thus enabling Éowyn strike the killing blow.