how did the 🧝elves know Tom Bombadil?

[Firiel23]

I'm rereading the Fellowship of the Ring: The Council of Elrond, and they are wondering about giving the Ring to Tom Bombadil. Elrond says,

But I had forgotten Bombadil, if indeed this is still the same that walked the woods and hills long ago, and even then was older than the old. That was not then his name. Iarwain Ben-adar we called him, oldest and fatherless. But many another name he has since been given by other folk: Forn by the Dwarves, Orald by Northern Men, and other names beside. He is a strange creature, but maybe I should have summoned him to our Council.

Gandalf seems to know him better, as does Glorfindel, and they can both say with confidence that Tom Bombadil would be the wrong person to have the ring. Galdor says that he only knows Tom by name, but he gives a pretty good one-line character assessment:

Power to defy our Enemy is not in him, unless such power is in the earth itself. And yet we see that Sauron can torture and destroy the very hills.

So I couldn't help thinking about how the elves (and Gandlaf, but mainly the elves) have interacted with Tom Bombadil in the past. Elrond might have some cool stories to tell.
Thoughts?

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

What I'm gathering from this is I'm wishing we knew more about Tom Bom our Merry Dol friend!

I also have wondered what role he may have played in the Sil. He's not mentioned there at all nor in the Hobbit... It sounds as if, since Elrond has 'almost forgotten' him for the long memory of the Elves, Tom is not very prevalent in the activities of Arda throughout the ages. I have read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and as far as I'm aware, most of what he does is court and marry Goldberry, prance around the Old Forest, and simply enjoy himself in that place.

It seems he has little to no intervention in the events of the outside world, yet we receive no indication of the time point of these adventures. Since Gandalf and Glorfindel remember him being around, and they lived before the moon and sun showed up, it's possible Tom had yet to move into the Old Forest? And maybe he held interactions somehow... in Valinor? Doesn't tell us how Tom moved to Middle-Earth, but it certainly makes you wonder if they had met in him in Beleriand as well. Wonder if Elrond heard of him through tales and sorts of things like that, being a child during the First Age. Those are my two cents as of now!

 

[Deimos]

What I'm gathering from this is I'm wishing we knew more about Tom Bom our Merry Dol friend!

I also have wondered what role he may have played in the Sil. He's not mentioned there at all nor in the Hobbit... It sounds as if, since Elrond has 'almost forgotten' him for the long memory of the Elves, Tom is not very prevalent in the activities of Arda throughout the ages. I have read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and as far as I'm aware, most of what he does is court and marry Goldberry, prance around the Old Forest, and simply enjoy himself in that place.

It seems he has little to no intervention in the events of the outside world, yet we receive no indication of the time point of these adventures. Since Gandalf and Glorfindel remember him being around, and they lived before the moon and sun showed up, it's possible Tom had yet to move into the Old Forest? And maybe he held interactions somehow... in Valinor? Doesn't tell us how Tom moved to Middle-Earth, but it certainly makes you wonder if they had met in him in Beleriand as well. Wonder if Elrond heard of him through tales and sorts of things like that, being a child during the First Age. Those are my two cents as of now!

Both of you ( @Firiel23 and @Glorfindel Goldtress ) are pretty new to the forum (unlike moi who joined oh so long ago back in Sept 2022 😉 ) but there are not a few threads about Tom.
But one thing we know for certain is that even Tolkien considered him an enigma.
So if Tom's own creator can't fully explain him or his place or purpose in ME, then you can speculate about him until the cows come home and no one would be able to say "nay" or otherwise.

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

(unlike moi who joined oh so long ago back in Sept 2022 😉 )

(I'm just realizing a joined a day before you joined a year later. Cool.)

enigma

Precisely why I wish we knew about our favorite Umbrella Boy.

 

[Firiel23]

Both of you (@Firiel23 and @Glorfindel Goldtress) are pretty new to the forum (unlike moi who joined oh so long ago back in Sept 2022 😉 ) but there are not a few threads about Tom.

yes, I know I'm new Thanks for rubbing it in!
I'm waiting for @Squint-eyed Southerner to hop on here and tell me where I should have looked to find my answer! At least someone keeps us all organized. I'll figure this place out one day; till then I'll enjoy exploring and stumbling across new things!
I'm only here for speculation with like-minded souls; there aren't many people in my life who care about LOTR, and I can only think of one or two who'd sit around and chat about this kind of thing.
I did look around to see if I could find anything related. I read through @Glorfindel Goldtress's post about Tom being part of the embodiment of the Ainur's Music. That discussion got derailed fairly quickly, but I love that thought. Since the whole of creation IS the music, maybe he's a bit like the kernel at the center of it all, just chilling and doing his thing, unaffected by everything around him, till it all ends.
The quote from Glorfindel at the council always makes me sad:

I think that in the end, if all else is conquered, Bombadil will fall, Last as he was First; and then Night will come.

It's so beautiful and bittersweet, and it embodies so well JRRT's feelings about the English countryside being swallowed up by "progress"

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

I read through @Glorfindel Goldtress's post about Tom being part of the embodiment of the Ainur's Music. That discussion got derailed fairly quickly, but I love that thought. Since the whole of creation IS the music, maybe he's a bit like the kernel at the center of it all, just chilling and doing his thing, unaffected by everything around him, till it all ends.

Thank you! I loved it, too! Silly Trekkies stole the show. 😅

The quote from Glorfindel at the council always makes me sad:
It's so beautiful and bittersweet, and it embodies so well JRRT's feelings about the English countryside being swallowed up by "progress"

I've not made the connection to the countryside, but now you say so, this makes much sense to me! Indeed, it is a most sad quote just in general. Thankfully, I do not believe it would have ever come to such by the provision of Ilúvatar in some means, whatever such may have been.

 

[Firiel23]

True. The Valar always stepped in when things got too out of hand, and they called on Ilúvatar when they were out of their depth.

 

[Olorgando]

Well, this is very likely the oldest thread on Tom Bombadil, original post from 04 September 2001. "Only" 22 pages long, 420 replies and 48,000 views. 😵‍💫

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/what-is-tom-bombadil.6059/

There are others, scattered in section "The Halls of Tolkienology", sub-forum "The Hall of Fire". Which boasts 55 pages of thread titles, 1,100 threads and 20,000 messages ... 🤯

 

[Deimos]

Well, this is very likely the oldest thread on Tom Bombadil, original post from 04 September 2001. "Only" 22 pages long, 420 replies and 48,000 views. 😵‍💫

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/what-is-tom-bombadil.6059/

There are others, scattered in section "The Halls of Tolkienology", sub-forum "The Hall of Fire". Which boasts 55 pages of thread titles, 1,100 threads and 20,000 messages ... 🤯

@Firiel23 and @Glorfindel Goldtress .. have at it you two.
You are still young... shouldn't take you more than a year or three to wade through all that 😄

 

[Olorgando]

@Firiel23 and @Glorfindel Goldtress .. have at it you two.
You are still young... shouldn't take you more than a year or three to wade through all that 😄

I never made it through all of "The Hall of Fire", though I gave it a try after joining in August 2019. 🫣

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I'm waiting for @Squint-eyed Southerner to hop on here and tell me where I should have looked to find my answer

I would have, but I was goofing off. Fortunately, Mr. O came to the rescue -- at least in part; EA would give you four threads. 😄

We do have a search function here; it can be wonky, but it does work. Some.

 

[Olorgando]

I would have, but I was goofing off. Fortunately, Mr. O came to the rescue -- at least in part; EA would give you four threads. 😄

Hey, that thread was on page 17 of 55! Luckily they're sorted by latest post, not original post
I did stumble across a couple of interesting threads a bit earlier, on pages 14 and 5:

The Bombadil Enigma

Greetings. I'm new to this forum, but a long time fan of Tolkien's works. One of my pastimes for the last several years has been looking at the various Bombadil theories. I've always found him fascinating. I finally put all of my thoughts together and expressed a tentative conclusion in a blog...

thetolkien.forum

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/the-bombadil-enigma-part-two-the-mroczkowski-letter.31109/

 

[Olorgando]

Here are some more, one starting 2019, on page 14:

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/my-own-theory-on-what-tom-bombadil-and-goldberry-are.28551/

from 2018, on page 20:

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/are-ungoliant-and-bombadil-opposites-of-each-other.23482/

another early one, starting 2003, on page 24:

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/tom-bombadil.10826/

from 2010, on page 26:

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/whos-older.19903/

from 2005, almost the same thread title on page 30:

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/who-is-older.18293/

I'll leave it at that - with the comment, prompted by the last two links, that questions pop up again every X years when new members join. I'm sure that in the monster thread I first linked, the one from 2001, the same questions popped up repeatedly over the decades, as not everyone had the patience to go through every previous post before submitting their own post - understandably.