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January 19, 2004
Tom Bombadil
Ring ding a dello! This explains that Tom Bombadil fellow! Ha hey nonny nonny, la la!
And, in all seriousness, I think Bombadil is certainly an avatar/incarnation/metaphor for Arda, the created world. The Ring binds the great, be they Maia, Eldar or descendents of Númenor to Middle Earth. Sauron wished to tie himself to the world after the fashion of his master the corrupted Valar, Morgoth. The Ring's power to do so echoes the Ring of the Nibelung. To claim the power of the Rhinegold and fashion it into a power to rule the world the bearer must first curse love as does the ringmaker, Alberich. This is the same Faustian pact made by those who choose temporal power over eternal life and presents a temptation to any incarnate being. Hobbits present a greater challenge in Tolkien's world to the same power, and same temptation, of the Ring thanks to their love of second breakfast. Yet even Hobbits fall prey to its power given time. Arda, an avatar of the world itself, is by definition the only being that could remain unaffected by this temptation. It seems to me this is the only coherent explanation for Bombadil's total indifference to the Ring, its power and the wars surrounding it.
I have a bigger question: why does the Ring render its wearer invisible? The Ring is related clearly to Wagner's interpretation of the Nibelung myths. Wagner attributes the power of invisibility to the Tarnhelm... is Tolkien simply conflating the two (rhetorical) devices? Or is invisibility an accidental hold-over from the children's book The Hobbit? One thought is that the Ring does not render the wearer invisible to everyone. Indeed, the Ringwraiths and Sauron's eye can only properly perceive the Ringbearer if he is foolish enough to don the Ring. The Orc Gorbag described the tortures of Ringwraiths, saying "they skin the body off you as soon as look at you, and leave you all cold in the dark on the other side." So, is invisibility itself a side-effect of the Bearer stepping "sideways" into the Wraith-world?
Another thought concerns the opposition of rings and towers. The tower of Orthanc is surrounded by the ring of Isengard, both child's toys compared to the ring of mountains surrounding Mordor and its Barad-Dûr. Minas Tirith, the Tower of Guard, is ringed by seven terraces. Middle Earth itself is ringed by surrounding waters. Here the structural relationship to Wagner is more clear... the Ring of the Nibelung is the last part of the price paid by Woton in payment for the construction of Asgard.
And then... The Chaos Overlord collects further evidence supporting the contention Bombadil is in some sense Arda itself.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at January 19, 2004 12:14 AM
Comments
The invisibility feature of the Ring is probably a leftover from "The Hobbit", but it's probably more a feature that you are entering the alternate world of the Wraiths and Sauron. Remember what Gandalf told Frodo at Rivendell after the encounter at the Ford (I'm referring to the book, not the movie). Also, Gandalf asserts around there that the robes, etc., give form to the Wraiths, suggesting that they are living in that alternate world.
Are the dead warriors from the Paths of the Dead part of that same world? What about the dead warriors found in the Marshes?
As for Tom B., I think Tolkien Scholarship (what a term for "useless fantasy stories") has pretty much established that he is one of the Maia, as is Gandalf and the other wizards.
I'm re-reading "Fellowship", and starting what will be (I hope) a year or more long quest to read the various non-fiction books I have on JRRT, including the Christopher Tolkien "making of" series. So maybe I'll revisit this post in a year or more and give you an update!
Posted by: FredKiesche at January 19, 2004 07:55 AM
Hi Fred, all interesting as per usual. I suspect the invisibility effect is indeed a Hobbit holdover. Certainly, its powers are entirely unsinister in that book and only take on their spectral qualities in LotR, perhaps attributable to the Necromancer being driven from Mirkwood only to reveal himself as Sauron in Mordor. It is Tolkien's incorporation of the Ring into his Wagnerian rewrite that has me curious as to his rationale and the place of the Ring is his wider symbolic/cosmological system.
It may be that Bombadil is a Maia by default in so far as all manner of angelic critters, including Sauron, fall into this catch-all category of non-Valar spirit beings. That said, he is certainly not one that particular order of Maia to which Gandalf belongs, the Istari. I think the argument against Bombadil being a Maia is twofold. First, he is unaffected entirely by the power of the Ring and has not apparent interest in the political/temporal contest for Middle Earth. Second, Tolkien himself wrote that he liked to include an element in the tale that escaped its primary logic or had, in effect, its own untold tale to tell. He does this quite a bit by way of allusion but often those stories get told elsewhere, primarily in the Silmarillion. I think Bombodil fits the bill...
Posted by: Ghost of a flea at January 19, 2004 09:19 AM
Incidentally, in the extended version of TTT, it's explained by the filmmakers that Treebeard also personifies (arborifies?) Tom Bombadil, and I think they give him one of Tom's lines. Also, the extended version shows Merry and Pippin dragged under the earth by a tree while they're waiting in Fangorn -- a nod to Old Willow.
Posted by: Mike Campbell at January 19, 2004 09:26 AM
I cannot believe nobody has complained about my Bombadil singing, ha hey la la nonny nonny tra la!
Posted by: Ghost of a flea at January 19, 2004 12:05 PM
"I cannot believe nobody has complained about my Bombadil singing, ha hey la la nonny nonny tra la!"
That's because you did not enable the audio link. Luckily for us...
Posted by: FredKiesche at January 20, 2004 10:53 AM