Just a theory about the Ithryn Luin/Bombadil

'Tis said he knows the hill, and the stream, and the willow. Who in Eä is Tom Bombadillo? --From "Who Is Tom Bombadil? by Mithrandread

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I don't feel so bad now that I know that you learned folk are as confused about Tom as I am...

But, what about Fangorn? Is he as old as Tom?

Fangorn is the oldest living thing in Middle-Earth (or so says Gandalf and Fangorn himself, I can find the quotes if you like), so I would say Fangorn is older than Bombadil. However, since we don't even know what Tom B. is, it would be impossible to know his age, so I can't give you a definite answer to that question.

That's one thing that always confused me about the text is that he says both tom and tree beard are eldest. I've always thought that tom came with arda. It is that nothing has power over him. Instead of claiming land for himself he simply sets bounds for himself and stays with in them as if to estrange the rest from around him. And yet he lives with the river-daughter(is she really the daughter of a river?) and they both seem to be as one, but yet entirely different. Almost as if some sort of telepathy they use.


DWARF LORD