Tom Bombadil appears in three chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring. He saves the hobbits from Old Man Willow, hosts them in his house with Goldberry, and rescues them from the Barrow-wights. Then he vanishes from the narrative, mentioned only briefly at the Council of Elrond before disappearing from the story entirely.
The timing of this is interesting, because I just wrote my own essay on the Essentialness of Bombadil to LOTR. You touch on some points here that I did not think of for mine. I did not consider Bombadil adding depth to the world (because of course he does), I think largely because I'm so aware of how vast Middle Earth lore is.
I argue that Bombadil prepares the reader for the ethos of what the rest of the story is all about: the value of Hearth and Home, the power of song to combat evil, and the value of doing the simple things right in front of you: tending your garden while the rest of the world burns.
Bombadil demonstrates there is more to Arda than the War of the Ring; he embraced happiness for its own sake, and with his love of nature the Ring had no way to tempt him...
You can tell that Tom Bombadil was important to Tolkien, because the Bombadil chapter is the most beautifully written part of Lord of the Rings. And Fog on the Barrow Downs is brilliant folk horror, long before folk horror was a thing. Comments that modern editors would have removed Tom Bombadil make me want to tear my hair out, and makes me wonder what other beautiful prose has been left on editors’ floors because it doesn’t fit the tedious tropes that they’ve decided fantasy writing should be about. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying until someone makes it into a meme; if you don’t get Tom Bombadil you don’t get Tolkien. You might get Peter Jackson, but that’s not the same thing.
My loathing of Tom Bombadil is exacerbated by the way that, once they’ve finally taken their leave of him, he comes back for a curtain call (doing more of exactly the same grating schtick).
Also, according to Gandalf, they can’t give him the Ring for safekeeping because “he would forget about it” and leave it somewhere…so we’re dealing with a real sharp mind here (of all the glorious lines of verse in all the books, his leitmotif is that his boots are yellow).
I concur that Ol’ Tom is nothing but a plus to Tolkien’s Middle Earth and his inclusion in TLOTR is absolutely necessary.
Obviously, everything he brings to painting a picture of a larger (and older) world cannot be fully captured in a short article, yet you do a commendable job.
However, one aspect I feel deserved note was the power of song that makes Tom’s otherwise terrifying level of power so wholesome. It plays such a role in many of the myths and legends which so inspired Mr. Tolkien’s world-building but has largely vanished from modern fantasy.
The timing of this is interesting, because I just wrote my own essay on the Essentialness of Bombadil to LOTR. You touch on some points here that I did not think of for mine. I did not consider Bombadil adding depth to the world (because of course he does), I think largely because I'm so aware of how vast Middle Earth lore is.
I argue that Bombadil prepares the reader for the ethos of what the rest of the story is all about: the value of Hearth and Home, the power of song to combat evil, and the value of doing the simple things right in front of you: tending your garden while the rest of the world burns.
The older I get, 50s now, the more I want to be like Tom. What stellar character.
I dreamed of being Gandalf and Strider, then Frodo, and lately Sam. But Tom! I see him now, and value his example where I didn't use to understand.
Bombadil demonstrates there is more to Arda than the War of the Ring; he embraced happiness for its own sake, and with his love of nature the Ring had no way to tempt him...
You can tell that Tom Bombadil was important to Tolkien, because the Bombadil chapter is the most beautifully written part of Lord of the Rings. And Fog on the Barrow Downs is brilliant folk horror, long before folk horror was a thing. Comments that modern editors would have removed Tom Bombadil make me want to tear my hair out, and makes me wonder what other beautiful prose has been left on editors’ floors because it doesn’t fit the tedious tropes that they’ve decided fantasy writing should be about. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying until someone makes it into a meme; if you don’t get Tom Bombadil you don’t get Tolkien. You might get Peter Jackson, but that’s not the same thing.
My loathing of Tom Bombadil is exacerbated by the way that, once they’ve finally taken their leave of him, he comes back for a curtain call (doing more of exactly the same grating schtick).
Also, according to Gandalf, they can’t give him the Ring for safekeeping because “he would forget about it” and leave it somewhere…so we’re dealing with a real sharp mind here (of all the glorious lines of verse in all the books, his leitmotif is that his boots are yellow).
Another theory: https://www.amazon.com.au/House-Tom-Bombadil-C-Wiley/dp/1954887027
Here’s an interesting alternative interpretation. https://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html
I concur that Ol’ Tom is nothing but a plus to Tolkien’s Middle Earth and his inclusion in TLOTR is absolutely necessary.
Obviously, everything he brings to painting a picture of a larger (and older) world cannot be fully captured in a short article, yet you do a commendable job.
However, one aspect I feel deserved note was the power of song that makes Tom’s otherwise terrifying level of power so wholesome. It plays such a role in many of the myths and legends which so inspired Mr. Tolkien’s world-building but has largely vanished from modern fantasy.