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I am a huge LOTR fan and to this day I still cant figure out who the hell Tom Bombadil was.... Tolkein was too methodical not to have some deeper understanding of who he is.... I must know!!!
@josemanuel There are soooo many theories on who he is... each of them have a bit of problem to them... but I personally would agree that he is the embodiment of the land as it was before the corruption. Thus by the time of the ring only maintains a small area.
@freemo Methodical as he was, I think Tolkien also very much wanted to depict certain mysteries as essentially unknowable, for deliberate literary effect. In that sense, I believe Tolkien meant for Bombadil to be, in his deepest nature, someone about whom the reader is invited to speculate endlessly, but in such a way that no single and definite conclusion will ever be entirely satisfactory. See https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2896&context=mythlore
@tym
Perhaps. But i recall him once saying that bombafil did represent something but he wanted it to be a mystery
@freemo I’m not disagreeing with you, but the paper I linked includes a few quotes from Tolkien’s letters that may be of interest, even if you don’t want to read the whole thing
@tym I plan to read it, but i was behind myphone when i first responded. Thanks.
@freemo I hope you’ll find it as interesting as I did. One of the better things I’ve come across on the subject.
@freemo From Wikipedia: «Scholars have noted that he is the spirit of a place, a genius loci.» I assume he'd be a bit like Puck in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, but I'm no Tolkien expert.