FotR 123-124(Frodo)'Did you hear me calling, Master, or was it just chance that brought you at that moment?'
Tom stirred like a man shaken out of a pleasant dream. 'Eh, what?' said he. 'Did I hear you calling? Nay, I did not hear: I was busy singing. Just chance brought me thenm if chance you call it. It was no plan of mine, though I was waiting for you. We heard news of you, and learned that you were wandering. We guessed you'd come ere long down to the water: all paths lead that way, down to the Withywindle....'
FotR 127-128As they listened, they began to undertstand the lives of the Forest, apart from themselves, indeed to feel themselves as the strangers where all other things were at home. Moving constantly in and out of his talk was Old Man Willow, and Frodo learned now enough to content him, indeed more than enough, for it was not comfortable lore. Tom's words laid bare the hearts of the trees and their thoughts, which were often dark and strange, and filled with a hatred of things that go free upon the earth, gnawing, biting, breaking, hacking, burning: destroyers and usurpers. It was not called the Old Forest without reason, for it was indeed ancient, a survivor of vast forgotten woods; and in it there lived yet, ageing no quicker than the hills, the fathers of the fathers of trees, remembering times when they were lords. The countless years had filled them with pride and rooted wisdom, and with malice. But non were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning, and a master of winds, and his song and thought ran through the woods on both sides of the river. His grey thirsty spirit drew power out of the earth and spread like fine root-threads in the ground, and invisible twig-fingers in the air, till it had under its dominion nearly all the trees of the Forest from the Hedge to the Downs
FotR 122'Fair lady!' said Frodo again after a while. 'Tell me, if my asking does not seem foolish, who is Tom Bombadil?'
'He is,' said Goldberry, staying her swift movements and smiling.
Frodo looked at her questioningly. 'He is, as you have seem him,' she said in answer to his look. 'He is the Master of wood, water, and hill.'
'Then all this strange land belongs to him?'
'No indeed!' she answered, and her smile faded. 'That would indeed be a burden,' she added in a low voice, as if to herself. 'The trees and the grasses and all things growing or living in the land belong each to themselves. Tom Bombadil is the Master. No one has ever caught old Tom walking in the forest, wading in the river, leaping on the hill-tops under light and shadow. He has no fear. Tom Bombadil is master.'
And no, that dark lord is not Dengen....'Who are you, Master?' [Frodo] asked.
'Eh, what?' said Tom sitting up, and his eye glinting in the gloom. 'Don't you know my nameyet? That's the only answer. Tell me, who are you, alone, yourself, and the nameless? Bu you are young and I am old. Eldest, that's what I am.Marky my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river and the trees. Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big Peopl, and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside.'
LotR page 122Power to defy our Enemy is not in him, unless such power is in the Earth itself.
But what of this quote taken from the Silmarillion?He is the Master of wood, water, and hill.
Now who would be the one that fits these descriptions? For me that would be Aule, but I do not deny that it might be someone else.Thus it came to pass that of the Ainur some abode still with Iluvatar beyond the comfines of the world; but others and among them many of the greatest and most fair, took leave of Iluvatar and descended into it. But this condition Iluvatar made, or it is the necessity of their love, that their power should thence forward be contained and bound in the world, to be within it, forever, until it is complete, so that they are its life, and it is theirs. And therefore they are named the Valar, the Powers of the World.
Lastly there is the quote from LotR page 259:His(Aule) Lordship is over all the substances of which Arda is made. In the Beginning he wrought much in fellowship with Manwe and Ulmo, and the fashioning of all the lands was his labor. He is a smith and a master of all crafts, and he delights in works of skill however small. . .(page 35) Of him comes the love and knowledge of the Earth and of all things that it contains. . the weaver, shaper of wood, and worker of metals; and the tiller and husbandman, though these last and all that deal with things that grow and bear fruit must look also to the spouse of Aule, Yavanna.
This from the Sil(page 8) seems to describe Aule the same way:And if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind.
Of the fabric of Earth had Aule thought. . .but the delight and pride of Aule is in the deed of making, and in the thing made, and neither in possession nor in his own mastery; wherefore he gives and hoards not, and is free from care, passing ever on to some new work.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Are you happy to accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Are you happy to accept cookies and these technologies?