What About Bombadil?

A good friend I frequently meet for coffee on Friday mornings always brings up stimulating topics for discussion. He and I are often drawn to the same kind of books, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy The Lord of the Rings offers plenty of material for our conversations.

The last time we met we happened onto the subject (I forget how or why) of that funny, surprising, enigmatic character named Tom Bombadil.

Of course, in the wondrous made-up world of Middle Earth, Tolkien has placed a host of fascinating, imaginative, complex persons: hobbits, wizards, goblins, elves, dwarves, trolls, giant tree-people...even humans! Names such as Gandalf, Frodo, Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn...just to name a few of the important ones...poplulate the story’s pages. In the course of this lengthy tale, Frodo Baggins and his friends meet up with surprising secondary characters such as the Gaffer, Farmer Maggot, Barliman Butterbur, Bill Ferny, Elrond, Treebeard, King Theoden...and the list goes on.

Tom Bombadil, however, stands totally alone. His very existence presents a unique puzzle to every Tolkien fan you might chance to speak to. Ask a LOTR reader, “What do you make of Bombadil?” and you are bound to get one of any number of answers and opinions.

For the uninitiated, Bombadil is a man (apparently), fairly short by human standards, who lives in the midst of the Old Forest bordering the Shire where most of the hobbits live. He is heavy and brown bearded with a weathered red face, and spends his time hopping and dancing through the hills and the woods, making paths along the river valley, gathering water lilies for his pretty lady who lives with him, and singing nonsensical songs about himself and his little land. A brief example of his singing:

Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow;
Bright blue his jacket is and his boots are yellow.
None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master;
His songs are stronger songs and his feet are faster!

It’s interesting to note that, while Tom often sings or chants verses to communicate--to others and to himself--pretty much everything he has to say follows the same metrical, poetic pattern! Obviously, there is a kind of rhythmic flow to his thoughts and speech that wells up from deep inside him.

Bombadil displays an awesome, elemental kind of power over both the natural world and the spirit world. For example, when an enormous willow tree tries to engulf or devour two of the hobbits, Tom rescues them by shouting at the tree, beating it with a branch and singing into the crack in the tree’s trunk. The old willow obeys Tom’s command like an angry, wayward child. Later, when a ghostly barrow-wight captures Frodo and the other hobbits, Bombadil arrives to save them once again after Frodo remembers a call for help that Tom taught him to recite earlier.

Tom Bombadil’s pretty lady, Goldberry, also a kind of elemental being--described by Tom as the “river daughter”--had some things to say about Tom as well. When Frodo asked whether Tom was the owner of the surrounding woods where their house was situated, Goldberry replied, “No, indeed! That would indeed be a burden...But Tom Bombadil is master! No one has ever caught Tom yet. Tom Bombadil is master!”

I recall an illuminating interview with Ian McKellan, the excellent actor who portrayed Gandalf the wizard in Peter Jackson’s LOTR movies. An admittedly gay man, McKellan obviously rejected the idea of finding any Christian symbolism in the writings of Tolkien. He pointed out that, in the idealistic realm of Middle Earth, there is no such thing as a church, clearly implying that, in a utopian society, Christianity would be an unnecessary commodity.

It is clear to me, however, that J.R.R. Tolkien’s Christian understandings of creation and of God Himself permeate the fictional world that flowed from his pen.

Tom Bombadil is, to me, a clear example of this fact.

Attributes of Christianity’s God characterize this jolly, wise, powerful, untroubled being, whose presence in the story provides a restful haven for the four hobbits who are being pursued by the evil forces of Mordor’s dark lord. In the house of Tom Bombadil, the travelers spend several days of peace and renewal, while the old man tells them marvelous tales about the natural world, the history of bygone kingdoms, and indeed, pre-history stretching back to the dawn of time. Tom’s memory and wisdom are awesome and profound. And when Frodo lends him the magical ring of power that all the free peoples consider such a terrifying threat, Bombadil merely laughs, tosses it in the air and makes it vanish and reappear like he’s playing with a trivial trinket.

In short, Tom Bombadil seems to represent the joyful, free, sovereign, omnipotent, all-wise nature of our Heavenly Father. A Being who has no fear, who can treat the weighty troubles of this world as the trifles they truly are, when compared to Him.

When the Black Riders of this age of the “real world” are hunting us down to destroy or devour me, when I weary of the journey and the dark forests and forbidding mountains along the path, when I get lost and bewildered and the enemies of my soul threaten to enchant and entrap me...

...it is at those times that I am invited to repair to the home up, down, underhill...a quiet, safe haven that is untroubled and free of care...a realm where a joyful Master can chase away all attackers with a song that seems like nonsense...and then can turn about and teach me the secrets of the universe as I sit at His feet.

It’s truly a shame that this peculiar character didn’t make the cut when Peter Jackson and his team wrote the screenplay for their films...perhaps they just didn’t know what to make of him.

But to me, Tom Bombadil will always inspire me to find in my untroubled God a sweet haven of peace along the dangerous road of life’s journey

MNA
7/3/15