January 13, 2004

Tom Bombadil
Elendur

I don't think even Tolkien was sure about what Tom was. I know I've never read anything that specified his race. Tolkien had invented him and wrote about him long before he began LOTR, so I think he was reluctant to make him one thing or another, which makes the character even more interesting. I think Tom's a Maia, here's why:

When asked who Tom was, Goldberry called him the Master. Not very Informative? The other Maiar were reluctant to say what they were too.

And, most importantly, Gandalf, in the chapter Homeward Bound, near the end of ROTK:

"I am going to have a long talk with Bombadil: such a talk as I have not had in all my time. He is a moss-gatherer, and I have been a stone doomed to rolling. But my rolling days are ending, and now we shall have much to say to one another."

It sounds like Gandalf considers Tom an equal, maybe because there are the same race.

-Elendur

PS: The reason Galadriel and Theoden were so over-played was to make it possible for an audience who had not read the books to under stand their stories.