Tom Bombadil - Farmer Maggot

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Tom visits Maggot's farm in the poem "Bombadil Goes Boating".

A supposed "Tolkien expert" -- and English professor to boot! -- mused in one of her books on why Tolkien chose the name of a vermin. 🙄

I supposed he had the other meaning in mind, and chose it because, as he mentioned in a letter, Christopher had a "maggot" about wanting Frodo to play tricks on him, as portrayed in one of the earliest drafts. Christopher doesn't say anything specifically about the name, though, so I'm not sure where the truth lies.

 

[Elbereth Vala Varda]

The name is certainly a little unorthodox and not expected. "Maggot" is obviously not an affectionate term, but I am not really sure where Tolkien was going with the name, and what general impact it actually had.

Hearing a little more on it would be nice.

What is the Tolkien Expert's quotation?

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I don't have the book -- I read a library copy. So I'm afraid I can't supply a direct quote. I was just surprised an English professor didn't know what a "maggot" was.

The rest of the book was wrong-headed nonsense, too -- IMO.

Edit: I'd forgotten that Tolkien wrote in Nomenclature that Maggot was a "meaningless" name, meant to sound "hobbit-like". So apparently carrying neither connotation.

 

[Elbereth Vala Varda]

I don't have the book -- I read a library copy. So I'm afraid I can't supply a direct quote. I was just surprised an English professor didn't know what a "maggot" was.

The rest of the book was wrong-headed nonsense, too -- IMO.

Thanks for the information-- although limited.

Edit: I'd forgotten that Tolkien wrote in Nomenclature that Maggot was a "meaningless" name, meant to sound "hobbit-like". So apparently carrying neither connotation.

Interesting! Thanks

Impressive. You have a lot of integrity to list "Edit:..." I think I'd just do it discretely.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I'm not sure "integrity" is the exact word I'd use. 😄 Nevertheless, rather than editing this one:

as he mentioned in a letter

I see I was wrong about this too; it's actually a note by Christopher in Return of the Shadow :

I was greatly delighted by the story of Bingo's turning the tables on Farmer Maggot, and while I retain now only a dim half-memory I believe I was much opposed to its loss: which may perhaps explain my father's retaining it after it had become apparent that it introduced serious difficulties.

Page 297, Note 13

The "serious difficulties" had to do in part with who knew about the Ring, and when, which I won't go into, but the encounter with Maggot, and Maggot himself, went through several stages in the drafts.

Originally, Frodo (still "Bingo" at this stage) wants to avoid Maggot's farm simply in order to not to be seen by anyone, and actually puts on the Ring -- as he had also done when the Black Rider came by. He plays a trick by invisibly drinking ale from a mug, supposedly because he was miffed at the others being able to drink while he stood there (at this point, the other hobbits know about the Ring, and he knows they know). Maggot, being astonished, asks that they leave.

In a later draft, Bingo confesses that he'd killed one of Maggot's dogs as a boy, leading to the beating as in the published text. In this version, "Maggot becomes a violent and intransigent character, with a black hatred of all Bagginses":

'He beat me, and told me he would kill me next time I put a foot over his boundaries. "I'd kill you now," he said, "if you were not Mr. Rory's nephew, more's the pity and shame to the Brandybucks" '

Page 289
The "trick" also escalates, with Bingo shouting at Maggot and pushing him into the fireplace.

In yet another version, Bilbo had been with Bingo in the trespass, and it was Bilbo who killed the dog with his stick, whereupon Maggot picked him up and threw him over the hedge into a ditch, followed by Bingo. As Christopher notes, he'd become a "real ogre".

Which leads to something at least relevant to the ancient OP: the idea that Maggot was not a hobbit, or only partly so. A note by Christopher has:

The division of hobbits into Harfoots, Fallowhides, and Stoors had not yet arisen, and the fact that some of the people in the Marish were 'rather large, and heavy-legged, and a few actually had a little down under their chins' is ascribed to their not being of pure hobbit-breed.

Page 294

And in an outline for the Tom Bombadil chapter, Tolkien had written:

He turns out to know Farmer Maggot. (Make Maggot not a hobbit, but some other kind of creature -- not dwarf, but akin to Tom Bombadil).

Page 117

So it can be seen that the "mist" existed for the author too.

 

[Eljorahir]

I supposed he had the other meaning in mind,

Other meaning for maggot??? If my brain were Batman it would say: "Quickly Robin...to the dictionary!"

Maggot definition #2: a fantastic or eccentric idea or whim.

Interesting. I think Bombadil is the most whimsical and eccentric character in the story. If Tolkien had wanted to apply definition #2 to a character name, he'd have named him Tom Maggot.

 

[Goldilocks Gamgee]

"Maggot" is obviously not an affectionate term,

I mean, I met a couple once who affectionately called their one-year-old son "Maggot". So, I'm pretty sure anything can be affectionate if you try hard enough!

 

[Eljorahir]

I bumped into a non-verminous meaning for "maggot" the other day. Although I can't find it in the dictionary, apparently a "maggot" is an old form of English or Irish folk music. Not certain at this point, but I get the impression the features of these maggots can include: association with a particular person or family, suitability for dancing, has a fairly short basic melody which can be endlessly repeated with some variation (or until the players get tired), and because of the repetition of the music it can become like what we modern folk would call an "earworm".

Here's one of several musical maggots to be found on YouTube:

I like the idea that Farmer Maggot's name may have more to do with Tom Bombadil than it does to Farmer Maggot himself. I think Tom's song might be one of these musical maggots. It can go on and on and get stuck in your head.

Tom's Maggot?:

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dilllo!
Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow!
Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!
etc.
etc.
etc.​

 

[Deimos]

I bumped into a non-verminous meaning for "maggot" the other day. Although I can't find it in the dictionary, apparently a "maggot" is an old form of English or Irish folk music. Not certain at this point, but I get the impression the features of these maggots can include: association with a particular person or family, suitability for dancing, has a fairly short basic melody which can be endlessly repeated with some variation (or until the players get tired), and because of the repetition of the music it can become like what we modern folk would call an "earworm".

Here's one of several musical maggots to be found on YouTube:

I like the idea that Farmer Maggot's name may have more to do with Tom Bombadil than it does to Farmer Maggot himself. I think Tom's song might be one of these musical maggots. It can go on and on and get stuck in your head.

Tom's Maggot?:

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dilllo!
Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow!
Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!
etc.
etc.
etc.​

Time to pull out the OED!.....
You are correct about a "maggot" being a particular kind of musical composition, associated with Dance Tunes.
(Analogously) like we have a square dance. In the 17th and 18th C. there were reels quadrilles, maggots.
A maggot was mentioned in Pride and Prejudice.
But wait! There's more! A maggot is also a fancy or a whimsy; thus it came to mean a capricious or whimsical person. And maggotry means "folly".
So you could say (in the early 1700's) a person was engaging in maggotry ... i.e. making a fool of himself.
But your observation that Tom has more of the characteristics of maggotry (in the sense of behaving, at times, capriciously) than Farmer Maggot is spot-on.

 

[Eljorahir]

Thanks @Deimos .

And yes, I did notice the Pride and Prejudice tune/dance: Mr. Beveridge's Maggot. Although, I wasn't sure if it was from the book or just something added in for the movie.

Another enticing tidbit:

I found a reference to an old tune called "Farmers Maggot".

"The Libertine" is a play published in 1676. Then this bawdy song, reportedly dated 1687, is set to a tune called "Farmers Maggot."

Unfortunately, this is all I could find regarding "Farmers Maggot". I'm left with too little evidence to determine if there's a connection between the tune "Farmers Maggot" and Tolkien's Farmer Maggot.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

From early OED citations, it appears the whimsical "eccentric idea" version comes from the conception of someone having a maggot in their brain, actual or metaphorical. An "earworm" indeed!

That in turn led to the association with an "obsession", which misled me into thinking the name came about because of Christopher's obsession with Frodo/Bingo getting the better of him.

 

[Deimos]

Thanks @Deimos .

And yes, I did notice the Pride and Prejudice tune/dance: Mr. Beveridge's Maggot. Although, I wasn't sure if it was from the book or just something added in for the movie.

Another enticing tidbit:

I found a reference to an old tune called "Farmers Maggot".

"The Libertine" is a play published in 1676. Then this bawdy song, reportedly dated 1687, is set to a tune called "Farmers Maggot."

View attachment 46206

Unfortunately, this is all I could find regarding "Farmers Maggot". I'm left with too little evidence to determine if there's a connection between the tune "Farmers Maggot" and Tolkien's Farmer Maggot.

Ahhhhhhh! Light bulb goes on!!!!
Folks... Our (at times) whimsical favorite author (or one of them) was making a joke; actually a [horrors😬] pun.

The 'farmer's maggot" (the tune) became ... (wait for it).....Farmer Maggot! Ta-da!

 

[Deimos]

So here is the interesting thing:
Anyone of Tolkien's generation, say CS Lewis, or earlier would have been chuckling (or rolling his eyes) at the name Farmer Maggot immediately.