🧙Gandalf and Bombadil

[JanitorofAngmar]

What? That got edited? And a warning?

Come on. You have to be kidding? If that was offensive I'm the Queen of England!

Little quick with the "axe" there Beorn.

*indignant huff!*

 

[OldTomBombadil]

It was once suggested to me that Bombadil was actually Eru incarnate. If this was the case, we could well have had Gandalf going off to report his doings to the Boss. Or so to speak.

The problem with this theory is that it contradicts what Tolkien himself said,

"There is no embodiment of the One, of God, who indeed remains remote, outside the World, and only directly accessible to the Valar or Rulers."
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien No 181, dated 1956

(This is the quote gate7ole referred to.)

If you must know, the reason that Gandalf went to visit Bombadil was that he had a hankering for yellow cream, honeycomb, white bread and butter, and no one serves a better table than the Master of Wood, Water, and Hill.

 

[Hammersmith]

Perhaps Gandalf was handing over his duties to Tom. As the Valar's emissary and the one charged to contend Sauron, the greatest evil, it might be said that Gandalf was the one in charge of all good in Middle Earth. That could explain why Tom was so indifferent to the Hobbits' plight; it was none of his business. Maybe he was the future caretaker who would ensure the flourishing and thriving of nature and the arts in a peaceful post-Sauron world.

 

[Annaheru]

Actually, I think the original quote gives the best clues. Gandalf, even as Olorin, had always passed among the elves (see Sil). Now, he's about to return to Valinor, where he will spend the rest of eternity in 'a little realm', very much like Bombadil's (self determined) small area. I think Gandalf had forgotten how to be still. In TTT, he says that he has learned much that he had forgotten, and forgotten much that he had once known. I think he went to Tom with the idea of relearning how to be content with himself, without needing to influence outside affairs.

 

[grimalkin]

Tom Bombadil is the eldest, older than Treebeard, he came into existence when Middle Earth was begotten, interesting he is somehow the opposite of Morgoth's ring which is somehow an enchantment placed upon all Middle Earth. Ok, Tom Bombadil is..... the MYSTERY ... of nature. He is a personification or rather the personification of the mystery of Middle Earth's nature and nature's mystery personified. He is nature's mystery and its mysterious magic which humans took a while to understand and allocate completely within the confines of science, which in fact science is the dry intellectual version of the understanding of the mystery of creation. Well, fable will not have much science unless its 'a mind of wheels and steel' Saruman's mind or a light mention of his discovery of 'gun powder' or Morgoth's sciences which created the dragons. Anyhow, this is fable and it would look quite strange if Tolkien were to exchange fable's mysteries, diction and nomenclature with those we find in science fiction, such as Jules Verne etc etc etc. So who knows what Gandalf would have wanted to know in his conversations with the mystery of nature and of creation?? it is a mystery too, Gandalf knew that Morgoth's ring ie the enchantment upon Middle Earth was also bound around Tom Bombadil, but then again Sauron's ring had no effect on Tom Bombadil. Morgoth gone Tom Bombadil was probably freed from Morgoth and his ring, but this is another mystery... I personally think that Gandalf wanted to meet a friend, a firend whom he loved because Gandalf was the steward of all Middle Earth and cared for it and loved it and wanted to see it freed of Sauron, what best way to celebrate then to go and meet Tom?? I think that it was love ...