November 18, 2003

Tom Bombadil
Strider

Hello all. I've been away for some time, but know I'm back in hopes to answer all of your quesions.

Recently, people have been talking about what part of the movie(s) people are glad have been left out, and Tom Bombadils appearance seems to stand out amongst the rest.

First of all, this seems strange to me, since when the movies were first released, everyone, complained (or wished) that he would have been in it. I geuss we see why PJ did this. In my opinion, while a great piece of literature in the books, it would have slowed down the movies slightly, and really was just a 'side adventure'.

Finally, people over the many years LOTR has been out, are wondering who, or what Tom Bombadil is. Well, I dont have the answer, but I have found an essay written by Eugene Hargrove titled "Who is Tom Bombadil?" You can read the essay at:

http://www.cas.unt.edu/~hargrove/bombadil.html

Hargrove makes a strong case that Tom is the Valar Aule and that Goldberry is Yavanna.

Enjoy!

P.S- Sorry for the length. Thank you for reading this though.