Tom Bombadil is one of those characters, along with Beorn in
The Hobbit, who never seems to make film adaptations. Maybe there is
something about these mysterious, larger-than-life, almost mythological
characters that defies visual capture, or maybe filmmakers are afraid of
unplugging the stories from the immediate plot engine that keeps them running.
What a mysterious character like Bombadil does is remind us that Middle-Earth
has a history – a long, long history that pre-dates not just Frodo and all the
other characters in the foreground, but even the old Ring itself and the power
that crafted it. And that helps us keep things in perspective.
“Who is Tom
Bombadil?” my daughter asked last night, as we settled in for Chapter Seven “At
the House of Tom Bombadil.” A good question. Less that two pages later, Frodo
asks Goldberry the same thing.
Ah, Goldberry. Such grace and loveliness, a kind of river
nymph who puts you in mind of many mythological women and almost feels like an
earthier, more practical Galadriel…but I’m getting ahead of myself. S. was so
excited when we met Goldberry. “A girl character!” she cried. “We don’t get
many of those in these books!” I try to read Goldberry with a slightly
high-pitched lilt, while I tend to rumble Tom’s voice a bit, while letting his
phrases fall into their natural sing-song kind of cadence. Reading Tom aloud,
you realize how much of his speech is poetry.
I’m feeling so thankful for this whole tapestry of
characters we’ve seen in the first chapters, characters on the side of good and
right who have helped Frodo and promised further help. He sorely needs their
help, and he needs the awareness of all this goodness before he moves further
into danger and peril. Gandalf (still mysteriously missing) is one great ally,
but there are so many more. Farmer Maggot, Gildor, Tom, and Goldberry are all
part of this team. I love realizing, from the hints Tolkien gives us, that
there are lines of connection between some of these people.
One of my favorite bits of writing comes when Tolkien
describes the dream world of the four hobbits as they sleep at Tom’s house. He provides
a lengthy paragraph to describe each hobbit’s dream, giving us insights into
the inner concerns and fears of Frodo, Pippin, and Merry. Then he gets to Sam
and writes: “As far as he could remember,
Sam slept through the night in deep content, if logs are contented.” It’s a moment that makes you smile or even
laugh, delivered with great timing. But in its own way, it also provides
insight into the soul of Sam – and makes me oh so glad he is with Frodo too.
The most intriguing bit of the entire chapter might be when
Tom, having heard Frodo’s story (and Tolkien tells us that Frodo finds himself
more forthcoming with Tom than he has been with anyone so far, even Gandalf)
asks to see the Ring. Frodo is able to hand it over without a moment of
hesitation. He is astonished, and so are we, to discover that the Ring seems to
have no effect on Tom. He not only
doesn’t seem to desire it or its power, he plays with it like it’s a toy. And
it does not make him vanish. Indeed, he makes it vanish – leading one to wonder why he can’t just keep it or get
rid of it, and thus let Frodo out of the arduous task
One senses, more than ever, that this is a task intended for
Frodo and company, however, and that Tom, with his long, long memory and keen
sense of the world, understands that too. Frodo shows some petulance here,
actually bothered that Tom’s nonchalance in the face of such an important
object somehow shows disrespect or makes light of the peril. Even Gandalf took
it seriously! I feel like patting Frodo on the head here, and assuring him that
Tom takes it seriously too…but he’s also able to take it more lightly because
he seems to have such a long perspective. (This morning, I find myself thinking
of the old expression: “angels can fly because they take themselves so lightly.”)
Even the seeming worst that evil can do doesn’t faze Tom. That too heartens
our spirits at this point in the narrative, much as the cool, fresh water they
drink at Tom’s house heartens the spirits of the hobbits. Frodo may not realize
it, but in these early days, he’s storing up “life and food for future years”
(to quote Wordsworth). He’s going to need it.
This sojourn with Tom is a strange sort of side excursion that seems to lift out easily, but I love it and think it does have an important place in the narrative. As you say, Tom is one of a series of important allies; there's a pattern of that here in the beginning of the tale especially, with perilous moments almost always being followed by new or renewed friendships. And Tom is such an interesting character, and his long perspective really is helpful. One gets the impression that if he actually did take the Ring, he would just sort of forget about it; yes, it's important, but it's not in his sphere. This needs to be taken on by someone whose world is directly threatened by the Ring, and Frodo certainly fits that bill. I wonder if Tom has any further encounters with folks involved in this quest or even learns that it was successful. He really seems to operate in a different orbit...
ReplyDeleteYes. We just go to the Council of Elrond over the weekend. I had forgotten that the suggestion is actually made (and considered!) to give the Ring to Tom. I found the distinction Gandalf makes quite helpful -- it's not that Tom has power over the Ring exactly, just that the Ring has no power over him. He's sort of a primal, elemental, ancient force -- there's something about him that reminds me a little bit of a rustic, rhyming Father Time. I think it's Gandalf who actually points out that Tom would likely lose the Ring, simply because he would forget it. Whereas Frodo and company can't forget it, much as they would like to. I also found it an interesting suggestion, made by one of the Elf-lords, I think, that perhaps they could just chuck the thing into the sea!
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