Tom Bombadil's Terrible Secret

Old Tom Bombadil is possibly the least liked character in The Lord of the Rings. He is a childish figure so disliked by fans of the book that few object to his absence from the movies. And yet, there is another way of looking at Bombadil, based only on what appears in the book itself, that paints a very different picture of this figure of fun.

What do we know about Tom Bombadil? He is fat and jolly and smiles all the time. He is friendly and gregarious and always ready to help travelers in distress.

Except that none of that can possibly be true.



What do we know about Tom Bombadil? He is not what he seems.

By his own account, Bombadil had lived in the Old Forest since before the hobbits came to the Shire, 1400 years before Frodo met him, and yet no hobbit had ever heard of him. There is no mention of him in the First Age. Elrond, the greatest lore-master of the Third Age, knew nothing of Bombadil. And yet, the main road between Rivendell and the Grey Havens passes not twenty miles from Bombadil’s house, which stands beside the most ancient forest in Middle Earth. Had no elf ever wandered in the Old Forest or encountered Bombadil in all those thousands of years? Apparently not.

The guise in which Bombadil appears to Frodo and his companions is much like a hobbit writ large. He loves food and songs and nonsense rhymes and drink and company. Any hobbit who saw such a person would tell tales of him. Any hobbit rescued by Tom would have sung songs about him and told everyone else. Yet Merry, who knows all the history of Buckland and has ventured into the Old Forest many times, has never heard of Tom Bombadil. Frodo and Sam, avid readers of old Bilbo’s lore, have no idea that any such being exists until he appears to them. All the hobbits of the Shire think of the Old Forest as a place of horror, not as the abode of a jolly fat man who is surprisingly generous with his food. If Bombadil had indeed lived in the Old Forest all this time, in a house less than twenty miles from Buckland, then it stands to reason that he had never appeared to a single hobbit traveler before, and has certainly never rescued one from death. In the 1400 years since the Shire was settled.

Gandalf seemed to know more, but he kept his knowledge to himself. At the Council of Elrond, when it was suggested to send the Ring to Bombadil, Gandalf came up with a surprisingly varied list of reasons why that should not be done. It is not clear that any of the reasons that he gives are the true one. “Power to defy out Enemy is not in him.”



What do we know about Tom Bombadil? He lies.

In his conversation with Frodo, Bombadil implies that he had heard of their coming from Farmer Maggot and from Gildor’s elves, both of whom Frodo had recently described. But that also makes no sense. Maggot lives west of the Brandywine, remained there when Frodo departed, and never even knew that Frodo would be leaving the Shire. And if Elrond knows nothing of Bombadil, how could he be a friend of Gildor?

Then where did Bombadil get his information? The only other people who had encountered the hobbits at that point were the Nazgul. They had been sent to the Shire to look for the wandering Baggins by their master, Sauron. And Tom said to Frodo at the dinner-table: “I was waiting for you. We heard news of you, and learned that you were wandering... But Tom had an errand there, that he dared not hinder."



What is the most dangerous place in Middle Earth?

First place goes to the Mines of Moria, home of the Balrog, but the second most dangerous place is undoubtedly Tom Bombadil’s country. By comparison, Mordor is a safe and well-run land, where two lightly-armed hobbits can wander for days without meeting anything more dangerous than themselves. Yet the Old Forest and the Barrow Downs are filled with perils that would tax anyone in the Fellowship.

Now, it is canonical that powerful magical beings imprint their nature on their homes. Lorien under Galadriel is a place of peace and light. Moria, after the Balrog awoke, was a place of terror to which lesser evil creatures were drawn. Likewise, when Sauron lived in Mirkwood, it became blighted with evil and a home to monsters.

Then there is Tom Bombadil’s country.

The hobbits can sense the hatred within all the trees in the Old Forest. Every tree in that place is a malevolent huorn, hating humankind. Every single tree. And the barrows of the ancient kings that lie nearby are defiled and inhabited by barrow-wights, evil spirits from Angmar. Bombadil has the power to control or banish all these creatures, as displayed when he commands the barrow-wight to leave the hobbits with but a few simple words. But he does not do so. Instead, he provides a refuge for them against men and other powers. Evil things flourish in his domain. “Tom Bombadil is the master,” Goldberry says. And his subjects are black huorns and barrow-wights.

The Witch-king was responsible for sending the wights there; just as obviously, the Witch-king (disguised as Tom) would be capable of ordering them to leave. This is related to another passage. When Tom is guiding the Hobbits back towards the Road, he gazes towards the borders of Cardolan. "Tom said that it had once been the boundary of a kingdom, but a very long time ago. He seemed to remember something sad about it, and would not say much." Since Tom, as the Witch-king, was the one who destroyed the kingdom of Cardolan, it is a little wonder that he would not say much about his involvement. Maybe his remembering of "something sad" reveals some remorse at being the instrument of Cardolan's destruction.



What do we know about Tom Bombadil? He is not affected by the Ring.

Tom could see Frodo clearly while Frodo was wearing the Ring, just as the Witch-king could see Frodo clearly while he was wearing the Ring at Weathertop. When Tom questioned the Hobbits, there was a notable glint in his eyes when he heard of the Riders. He was concerned that his double-life might have been noticed, and immediately changed the subject of conversation. Furthermore, the One Ring had no effect on Tom, which is consistent with how the Nazgul would have handled it: "They were... in no way deceived as to the real lordship of the Ring." Likewise, the elves "Power to defy the Enemy is not in him."



What do we know about Tom Bombadil? He is not the benevolent figure that he pretends to be.

Tom appears to the Ringbearer in a friendly, happy guise, to question him, test him, and give him and his companions swords that can kill the servants of the enemy. But his motives are his own.

It is said more than once that the willows are the most powerful and evil trees in the Forest. Yet, the rhyme that Bombadil teaches the hobbits to use in conjuring up Bombadil himself includes the line, “By the reed and willow.” The willows are a part of Bombadil’s power and a means of calling on him. They draw their strength from the cursed river Withywindle, the center of all the evil in the Forest. And the springs of the Withywindle are right next to Tom Bombadil’s house.

Then there is Goldberry, “the river-daughter”. She is presented as Bombadil’s wife, an improbably beautiful and regal being who charms and beguiles the hobbits. It is implied that she is a water spirit, and she sits combing her long, blonde hair after the manner of a mermaid – beautiful above the water but slimy and hideous below, luring sailors to drown and be eaten. But what is she, really?

In folklore and legend, there are many tales of creatures that can take on human form but whose human shape always contains a clue to their true nature. So what might Goldberry be? She is tall and “slender as a willow wand.” She wore a green dress, sat amidst bowls of river water, and was surrounded by the curtain of her golden hair. She was a willow tree conjured into human form; a malevolent huorn like the Old Man Willow from whom the hobbits had just escaped. She is nourished by the evil Withywindle.



So, if this is true, why would the Witch-King of Angmar sport such a double identity?

Perhaps the Witch-king, once of proud Numenorean ancestry, felt trapped by the guise of evil which Sauron had tricked him into, and forged an alternate identity for himself so that he could occasionally feel happy, helpful, noble, and more at one with himself and his lineage. The situation is perhaps analogous to a cross dresser who, feeling trapped in the body of a man, would occasionally assume the identity of a woman. It makes sense that the Witch-king's other identity would be so peculiarly enigmatic.

Bombadil saves and helps the ringbearer and his companions simply because then hobbits can bring about the downfall of Sauron. When Sauron falls, the other rings will fail; the wizards and elves will leave Middle Earth, leaving the Witch-king free, the only great power left.

The last mention of Bombadil is when the hobbits return to the Shire. Gandalf leaves them close to Bree and goes towards Bombadil’s country to have a long talk with him. However, he arrives at the Grey Havens undelayed by any long conversation. Gandalf made it to the Old Forest, but Tom, who, as the Witch-king, had been killed, was nowhere to be found.