The Problem of Tom Bombadil

Today, I would like to share a little piece I have written about J.R.R. Tolkien's character, Tom Bombadil. I hope you enjoy it!

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Cast of Characters:

Illuvitar- Creator of Middle Earth; supreme being.

Tom Bombadil - Mysterious character who appears in both The Lord Of The Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, and also the Adventures of Tom Bombadil.

Sauron - The Dark Lord, Devil equivalent in Middle Earth at the time of the Lord of the Rings.

Middle Earth - The world in which Lord of the Rings is set.

Tar-Pharazon - Last king of Numenor, an island off the coast of Middle Earth founded by Elros

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Every other year, my family embarks on an epic Lord of the Rings marathon...the old fashioned way. From Advent to Easter, we will spend four to five months immersed in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, dividing up roles, and taking it in turns to laugh at Pippin's antics, or to jump when Dad's spooky Gollum voice begins. A few weeks ago, we read Chapter Six, The Old Forest, in the Fellowship of the Ring, and I was struck, not for the first time, by the strange and one might say wholly ridiculous character of Tom Bombadil.

Tom Bombadil. Possibly the most elusive of Tolkien's characters. Left out of almost every single adaptation of Tolkien's work. Mourned by die-hard Tolkien fans. And the subject of much discussion and speculation on the internet.

The purpose of this article is not to join the thousands ranting and raving at Peter Jackson for having left him out of the Lord of the Rings movies, or even those lamenting the questionable portrayal of him in Amazon's 2024 season two of Rings of Power. I merely want to explore the character a little, attempt to shed some light on exactly who he is, and approach Peter Jackson's and Amazon's position from someone who, while regularly penning plot outlines, is deeply attached to the idea of character-driven storytelling.

Who Is Tom Bombadil?

Tom Bombadil is, as his wife Goldberry puts it, the master of wood, water, and hill. When the four Hobbits who have set out from the Shire in the Fellowship of the Ring meet him, he is residing in the Old Forest. To the Hobbits, who spend a night or two in his house, he comes across as a mad old man who cares for the woods, and beasts, and trees as if they were his own. Not unlike the way the wizard Radagast the Brown is portrayed in The Hobbit movies. So it seems that Tom is a crazy old guy who lives in a sort of man cave in one of the strangest forests in Middle Earth. But what about that little incident on the evening of the Hobbits' stay where Tom puts on the Ring, and doesn't disappear?

A glance at my family's Tolkien Encyclopaedia tells me that Tom had other names, among them Iarwain Ben-adar, and First, which names the Elves had for him. He is described as a possible Maia 'gone native'. And, though this is purely my own interpretation, he is one of those that Illuvitar called awake at the dawn of the ages (which one can find in the first few chapters of the Silmarillion. Good luck!) and who wished to join the lesser races and care for them, possibly as Illuvitar had cared for him.

This also ties in with the theory that Tom is like a second Adam, or Christ, or rather like the first Adam before the fall. Names like First, and Fatherless, which other races gave to him, fit with this theory. Explaining him as like to the first Adam explains his locality to the Old Forest, and how his power is contained in one place, rather than universally like Illuvitar, or even Sauron himself. It would also explain Tom's apparent immortality, since Christian tradition has it that Adam and Eve were given the gift of immortality, and that death came into the world when they disobeyed God. In this instance, Tom and Goldberry have not disobeyed Illuvitar, unlike Tar-Pharazon who, tempted by Sauron, took the Numenorean fleet to the borders of Valinor in an attempt to become like the Valar. You will be as the Valar, Sauron might have said to him...

Also, from the perspective of someone who is a Catholic, as Tolkien was himself, I find Tom Bombadil a deeply complex, mysterious, and even spiritual character.

The Issue Of 'Unnecessary Elements'.

While outlining and plotting a novel (or editing for discovery writers), modern authors, playwriters, and screenwriters tend to have a few things in common, and one of those is the norm to 'take out the unnecessary elements'. And to someone like your average, modern day author (and I count myself amongst them), the Old Forest, Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, and the sweet cottage in an ancient glade are all unnecessary, and your readers are going to find them dull, and a complete waste of their time.

So why isn't that the case for avid Tolkien readers?

Because in this 'unnecessary element' there is something so necessary and beautiful, that speaks to us of peace, quiet, and the simplicity of a world we have lost.

At the time Tolkien was writing The Lord of the Rings (circa 1945) the world was becoming increasingly busy. In the years that followed the publication of his fantasy epic in 1954, the western world got faster and faster. Despite time saving gadgets being disseminated in society, we have no time for home, for quiet, for just being anymore. Our world got louder, and silence became something that many people feared, and still do. Now, here we are in this year of grace 2026, where our western civilisation is practically the noisiest it has ever been. We cannot just be anymore.

Peter Jackson, like any adapter of novels into screenplays, faced a problem. And that problem was Tom Bombadil. From a modern writer's perspective, Tom is entirely unnecessary. He runs around the Old Forest, taking care of the little things of nature; he has a wife who, I'm sorry, is the daughter of a river (puzzled look!); and who brings pretty much nothing to the plot except 5,000 words of complete and utter insanity bordering on banality. What would any self-respecting author do these days? Cut it. No matter how good the writing, how developed Tom is. Cut it. Mercilessly. Not pared down like pollarded trees. No, stripped, like Britain's hedges. No need for them when you could have an epic chase scene through Farmer Maggot's fields, pursued by five ghosts on horseback. Far more entertaining!

Amazon took Tom to the other extreme. Although he doesn't feature in the entire two seasons of Rings of Power, the parts that he does appear in hit one like a ton of bricks. And not in the best way possible. Amazon didn't have all the rights they wanted for developing the lesser known works of Tolkien into the five-season epic they intended, and so the writers built some pretty insane bridges between various tiny plot lines. They invented characters, turned a one-line mention of a warrior named Galadriel into the strong woman of the seasons, and messed around with one of fantasy's weirdest characters. Tom.

In Rings of Power season two, Tom is the mentor character to Amazon's take on a young Gandalf. (Theme tune aside, this character needs better lines.) Gandalf rocks up at Tom's door in the lands of Rune looking for his staff, and is faced with a choice. Does he join with the evil white wizard, or does he fulfil his destiny? Tom is there to help him make that choice. Tom's advice, just like in The Lord of the Rings, is a little cryptic, and he cares for his little patch of land just as Tolkien's Tom does, but that's where the similarities end. My personal opinion is that Amazon wanted Tom in there to please the masses. In my opinion, Eleanor Brandyfoot is a much better mentor figure for the jejune wizard.

Also, doesn't anyone else just love the fact that Tom doesn't let the worries of the world infiltrate his own world, and his own heart? All that singing, and gathering lilies for Goldberry, and looking after the Old Forest, and having occasional arguments with Old Man Willow. These are Tom's concerns. He's been around long enough to know that worrying too much about the things you can't really change isn't good for anyone. As Tom says himself:

"Eldest, that's what I am. Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river, and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the Little People arriving. He was here before the Kings, and the graves, and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside." The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

The Results

Is Tom Bombadil unnecessary to the plot of The Lord of the Rings? I think not. Unlike the gentle, sweet setting of the Prancing Pony, and the community, and the joy that is shown there at the beginning of those scenes, Tom's appearance and acts do not bring anything to the story or to the plot as a whole in modern understanding. However, the few scenes in which he does appear can teach us a lot about slowing down, and taking life as it comes, living in the moment and focusing on the smaller things in life, the things that are closer to home and hearth.

Here I think we should also focus on the reasons why Tolkien drops Frodo into Tom's life and home. At the time that Tolkien was writing, war was brewing, and indeed had already broken out in Europe, and by dropping Frodo into the world of Tom and Goldberry, he is showing a world that was being lost at the time, and had been lost at Eden. The theory that Tom is like a first Adam fits with this as the glade in which he lives and the part of the Old Forest that is his home show that he is rooted to one spot, as opposed to being lord over all Middle Earth.

In modern storytelling, if something doesn't contribute to the plot as a whole, like Tom, then it must be cut. But here, in Tolkien's work, we see a man who either hasn't edited properly, or a man who is not afraid of showing, through his writing, the truth about simple living, even if it brings nothing to the plot as a whole. And, surprise, surprise, his readers love him for it. The character of Tom Bombadil has become an integral part of the Lord of the Rings fandom. It is the same with the Hobbit Race. Tolkien appears to believe it is important to live close to the land, to dwell in the quiet, simple stillness of the world that God, or in Tom's case Illuvitar, created for His people. Don't let us destroy it with noise and a bustling life; it is a well known tactic of the Devil to try to distract us from silence, but silence before God and His beautiful creation is so important in our lives.