I'd not read that Bombadil=Master comment - love the idea of dark Bombadil's songs to the sound of the drums!
Of all the people Bombadil could be, Aulë? Seriously? That seems like, hmm, here is an immortal non-elf couple. What other IN-EC's do we know of? Oh yes, Aulë & Yavanna, they must be the same people.
Anyone proceeding on that sort of basis in daily life must get *SO CONFUSED* :-D
Heh! I hadn't heard of that post before, it's amazing. I love the idea of dark lord Bombadil. It's hilarious yet also ominious. Imagine being tortured by someone who keeps laughing and making silly rhymes about said torture. This is how I imagine it. Which might actually be more frightning than a serious dark lord who actually seems to care about your lack of wellbeing. Ahem
( ... )
Imagine being tortured by someone who keeps laughing and making silly rhymes about said torture.
Surprisingly enough, I hadn't yet got as far as imagining that. And yes, it is rather horrifying in a funny way!
God as a merciless, terrifyingly cheerful quiet observer of everything going on around him is quite dark, actually. I mean, that makes his eternal good cheer and laughter rather obscene.
OMG that's true, it would actually be pretty messed up, wouldn't it? Love the quote.
Ah the old Bombadilian origins chestnut! Always a favorite, and there are some real doozies in there. From Letter 144 to Naomi Mitchison:
Tom Bombadil is not an important person - to the narrative. I suppose he has some importance as a 'comment'. I mean, I do not really write like that: he is just an invention (who first appeared in the Oxford Magazine about 1933), and he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyze the feeling precisely. I would not, however, have left him in, if he did not have some kind of function. I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. but if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to
( ... )
It seems people either love or hate Bombadil's ambiguity. I was in the latter camp until I'd read into the more obscure corners of the Legendarium, at which point I decided it was more fun to imagine where on earth Bombadil emerged from rather than be annoyed about him.
Glad my crack!dialogue elicited some amusement. =D
"Tom and Goldberry are actually Aulë and Yavanna" makes least sense to me out of all the speculations.
Good Grief!
To quote Saruman, "What the eternal flame would a self-possessed, logical chap with a penchant for bioengineering, chemistry, and geophysics be doing running around in the woods like a hippie and singing inane verse?"
I'm so relieved I'm not the only one who can't fathom the Bombadaulë (yes, I went there) hypothesis. For some reason I've read more Bombadil speculation than a healthy person ought, and I've seen the Aulë thing seriously put forward in a few places. It's never made a jot of sense to me.
I hadn't heard this speculation before, although I loved, loved, LOVED your crack-fic. I have thought sometimes that Bombadil might have been Orome, returned to Middle-earth because he loved the land, but I also love the idea that another Vala entered Arda, not just Tulkas, or that Eru has an alter-ego and his name is Bombadil.... Whichever way you go about it, he is a character of enigma and mystery clothed in some really horrible music and rhyme.
I find Oromë quite a bit more severe than Tom, but they do share an affinity for the land it seems, yes.
...but I also love the idea that another Vala entered Arda, not just Tulkas...
I think you're the second or third person in this thread to bring up the idea that Tom's a Vala. I hadn't thought of that before but I rather like it; after all, it's never quite seemed to me that there's a Vala in the panthoen who quite represents the poetic inclination.
In my own headcanon, he's a Maia who came into Arda at the same time as Tulkas did. Once I meant to write a bunch of short stories about him, one bearing out my headcanon, and a few just being kind of satirical. So many things I never get around to writing..
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Of all the people Bombadil could be, Aulë? Seriously? That seems like, hmm, here is an immortal non-elf couple. What other IN-EC's do we know of? Oh yes, Aulë & Yavanna, they must be the same people.
Anyone proceeding on that sort of basis in daily life must get *SO CONFUSED* :-D
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Exactly. I can only speculate that someone thought Yavanna would make a good Goldberry and decided to bring Aulë along.
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Surprisingly enough, I hadn't yet got as far as imagining that. And yes, it is rather horrifying in a funny way!
God as a merciless, terrifyingly cheerful quiet observer of everything going on around him is quite dark, actually. I mean, that makes his eternal good cheer and laughter rather obscene.
OMG that's true, it would actually be pretty messed up, wouldn't it? Love the quote.
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Tom Bombadil is not an important person - to the narrative. I suppose he has some importance as a 'comment'. I mean, I do not really write like that: he is just an invention (who first appeared in the Oxford Magazine about 1933), and he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyze the feeling precisely. I would not, however, have left him in, if he did not have some kind of function. I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. but if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to ( ... )
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It seems people either love or hate Bombadil's ambiguity. I was in the latter camp until I'd read into the more obscure corners of the Legendarium, at which point I decided it was more fun to imagine where on earth Bombadil emerged from rather than be annoyed about him.
Glad my crack!dialogue elicited some amusement. =D
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Good Grief!
To quote Saruman, "What the eternal flame would a self-possessed, logical chap with a penchant for bioengineering, chemistry, and geophysics be doing running around in the woods like a hippie and singing inane verse?"
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- Erulisse (one L)
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...but I also love the idea that another Vala entered Arda, not just Tulkas...
I think you're the second or third person in this thread to bring up the idea that Tom's a Vala. I hadn't thought of that before but I rather like it; after all, it's never quite seemed to me that there's a Vala in the panthoen who quite represents the poetic inclination.
In my own headcanon, he's a Maia who came into Arda at the same time as Tulkas did. Once I meant to write a bunch of short stories about him, one bearing out my headcanon, and a few just being kind of satirical. So many things I never get around to writing..
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