April 16, 2002

Re: Who Was First?
Brett C.

I agree with what Olorin said, which pretty much mirrors what I wrote in my article which unfortunately didn't get posted. The clue is that the one who announce the oldest living being is Gandalf himself, who of course with his origins as one of the Ainur existed before creation. So the 'eldest of all living things' reference is seemingly referring to beings born of Middle Earth, like Elves, Dwarves, and Ents, and not the immortal spirits with pre-creation origins.

Bombadil's origins are indeed a mystery, but he does mention he was in the region of the Old Forest when the Elves first pased westward, and even earlier before the Dark Lord came from outside. The second could be reference to the time when Morgoth retreated to the Outer Void to regroup, just before the destruction of the Two Pillars [see the opening chapters of the Silmarillion]. This event predates the creation of the Ents by Yvanna, which occured just before the creation of the Elves. So Bombadil would have been in Middle Earth longer than the Ents.