Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil

Re:Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil by jfmercer on Friday July 31, 2015 @01:51PM (#9983163)

"What do we know about Tom Bombadil? He lies."

The author fundamentally misunderstands Tom Bombadil, both in terms of where he fits (or doesn't) into Tolkien's mythology, and in terms of Tom's literary purpose.

Tolkien deliberately made Tom an enigma: "And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)" (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, No 144, dated 1954).

The following are three suggested articles that are far more intelligent, subtle, well-researched, and balanced in comparison to km-515's rant.

Mark Fischer, The Riddle of Tom Bombadil: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/t/tombombadil.html

Steuard Jensen, What is Tom Bombadil?: http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/Bombadil.html

Gene Hargrove, Who is Tom Bombadil?: http://www.cas.unt.edu/~hargrove/bombadil.html

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Re:Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil by anp on Friday July 31, 2015 @01:59PM (#9983230)

I get the impression that this is a purposeful misunderstanding, mostly for kicks and giggles. Maybe I'm wrong? But it certainly seemed tongue in cheek to me, aimed at bringing a fresh perspective to a work that's already been picked over a billion times by fans.

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Re:Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil by johnchristopher on Friday July 31, 2015 @02:01PM (#9983245)

That might because the author wrote that:

> Do I think that Tolkien planned things in this way? Not at all, but I find it an interesting speculation.

> To speculate further and more wildly:

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Re:Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil by tom_morrow on Sunday August 02, 2015 @02:57AM (#9990027)

my theory: tom bombadil is the author.

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