I read The Hobbit first about 45 years ago, but never was interesting in LOTR. Now at 65 I’m reading The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time. I’ve just met Tom B. for the first time. So, this was a lovely, timely video.
A classic is a work in which you discover another layer, facet, or meaning every time you read. I have read Tolkien's works for half a century and will never be finished. They are never-dying friends.
Thank you for this channel. It truly, truly means a lot to me. I am a small and modest book collector myself. I just love your videos - especially - on Tolkien. Tom Bombadil is my favorite.
Thank you for creating this video and thus also for researching it and keeping it simple and without a lot of speculation which tends to enter when Bombadil is the subject. I leave feeling more knowledgable 🙂
I could sit in a comfy chair and listen to You for hours. My love of Tolkien started at age 10 with the Hobbit. At 12 I got the 3 book set of The Lord of the Rings. I've been hooked ever since. (I'll be 60 in a few months).
A short true tale for you all. When my son Peter was 10, I said you must read The Hobbit, and gave him my copy. 2 months later, he said that he had. So, I said that I never expected the dragon to be killed by a sword. He said, "I know, neither did I." At was at this point, he was caught out. Anyway, he then did read it and loved it.
Top stuff! I still have my 1968 Third Impression of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, the very book you held up. It was probably the latest you could get when I bought it and thus the book dates me as well. I also have Tree and Leaf, and Smith of Wootton Major, from the same period.
This blend between fantasy, its development, and bibliographical context is such an eye-opener! Also, I spy a shiny new UA-cam plaque in the background ✨
Stumbled upon and loved this video so much. What a thoughtful but well researched venture into a legendary literary character’s historical underpinnings. Also: what a backdrop! There’s a collection that I just know contains some gems! 👌👌
Greetings from The Tolkien Curmudgeon: This was a great video. You touch on things I've been thinking about recently and I love seeing your first edition copy of "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" in your hand, too. Tolkien himself can be heard reading many of the poems from this volume by searching UA-cam. It's great to hear Tolkien's voice and delivery.
I always thought of Tom Bombadil as one of those mysterious, unexplained beings that Tolkien likes to throw in every now and then. He's like a force of nature, maybe the spirit of the land. He has absolute power in his domain, and almost none outside it.
Thanks for this video, Tom. Very enjoyable and informative. I will add a link to this video for our new JRRT Bibliography at TCG which I am working on this year. It will be a very good reference people can link to and enjoy.
I've never seen this history of Tom Bombadil laid out so completely before. Tom Bombadil is such a mystery, for some reason I connect him with the Green Man, maybe I have read it somewhere. Thank you for this very useful history Tom.
Something I'm unsure of is the creation of Old Man Willow. I don't know of any sort of preexisting tree based folklore that's Tolkien would have been taking from, but the malicious mess of the trees and the willows in particular are very reminiscent of the Ash from Phantastes which I know you've mentioned before as being a massive inspiration for much of Tolkien's works.
I first read The Lord of the Rings around 1967 or 1968, when I was a high school student. I'm also pretty sure I read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil before reading The Hobbit - I still have my paperback of the latter somewhere around LOL. I've read and re-read LOTR multiple times...including once in its French translation...I think it's about time for another read-through. Oh, and I hated the fact that the Hobbits' visit to Tom was omitted in the films...and The Scouring of the Shire at the end.
The scouring of the shire wouldn't have fit in the movie, the climax was defeating sauron......adding tom bombadil to the movie would have led to more questions, which the book obviously did also, so yeah they should have added him just like the book
A bit off topic, but from what you describe Tolkien must have been a wonderful father. He could have been distant like many fathers of that era, but instead he really got involved in his children's lives. Without this trait we would have never gotten to experience _The Lord of the Rings_ since he originally wrote _The Hobbit_ as a bedtime story for his own kids.
That was fascinating .. the character is an enigma and i'm quite happy that he and Goldberry remain so. I like to think that as 'Smith of Wooton Major' was able to venture into Faerie with the Fay star. Bombadil represents the 'Natural' world that links Middle Earth with this reality.
My favorite character! I always felt that he was a portrayal of Tolkien himself. Also, I forgot about Roverandom! Stumbled across it as a child at the library. Great story.
The little tidbit that is going to stick with me is that we almost got Bullroarer Took's story. I would absolutely love a story with really low stakes, that to the hobbits feels like the craziest thing that ever happened.
Oh goodness rings of power are doing tom bombadil i wonder just how badly they are going too eff this up. Also first time viewing this channel, its a real cool idea to track character creation through writings.
RoP show runners said T. Bombadil doesn’t have main character energy, which is sad because Tolkien considered producing a story for him making him the central hero and less silly for children. (This information can be found in one of Tolkien’s published letters.) Bombadil also seems to be dressed as a rich country gentleman who owns an estated property, and at one time might have owned many large properties and took care of the forests. His description is reminiscent of a dandy…a gentleman who liked to dress up in bright/fine French colors. From what RoP seems to be trying to do, they cut down on the silly (jumping straight up to the ceiling in LoTR, for example, is cartoonish) but still kept him a side character while giving him multiple estates, even in the far east.
It sort of comes off as a joke when Elrond explains that Tom Bombadil predates the creation of middle earth and all things. Tolkien wrote about Tom Bombadil before creating the LOTR and nobody in the realm of middle earth can explain who or what he is because he predated the creation of the world (to them).
I have an old paperback titled _Smith of Wootton Major & Farmer Giles of Ham._ If you like 'Farmer Giles of Ham' you really should try 'Smith of Wootton Major.' Both are great reads.
After learning all of this, I think we do know who Tom is. He is Tolkiens childhood hero and he will always exist to Tolkien whether be it in middle earth or historical fiction. Where he came from in LOTR lore is relevant because he always has been in the mind of Tolkien
Love Tom Bombadil. Alas, Prime's Rings of Power will stop at nothing to leave its scourge marks wherever it can on the Professor's great ouevre. "I look East, West, North, South, and I do not see Sauron; but I see that Saruman has many descendants. We Hobbits have against them no magic weapons. Yet, my gentlehobbits, I give you this toast: To the Hobbits. May they outlast the Sarumans and see spring again in the trees." --J.R.R. Tolkien
What do you mean there are no theories of who is Tom Bombadil? He's either a Valar who went off on his own, either the equal or mightier than Manwe, or he's a manifestation of Eru himself. He doesn't engage in combat because he hates violence and knows his unleashed powers will damage Middle Earth along with Sauron.
Hey Tom, thanks for the interesting video on a fellow Tom. Just my two cents: it’s a bit awkward for you to read out the chapter headings in your videos. It just sounds like awkward sentences as it runs up against your other narration. I think it would be better to just present the titles without narration and maybe include a short music segment there.
It's ok, you just hate it because the internet tells you to. In twenty years the next generation will see it as a misunderstood classic just like the Star Wars prequels are with Gen Z. [this is the part you laugh like a moron instead of having an independent opinion]
@@BadgerOfTheSeasorry but rings of power has nothing to do with Tolkien’s work. Just because you say “I’m supposed to like it for what it is” is bs. It’s trash. But like it if you want, has nothing to do with tolkiens world period
Great stuff… to bad the creators of the Rings of Power didn’t read any of the books that involve similar named characters in the same world they are failing to portray
Sorry, but not even Tom Bombadil is enough to make me watch the absolute insult to Tolkien's memory that is The Rings of Power. It is an unmitigated dumpster fire. No, thanks. But on the matter of Tom Bombadil himself, this makes him seem sort of like a metacharacter in the Lord of the Rings. Sort of like he's above the story. Like he lives in this pocket universe, at the meeting point of all of Tolkien's stories, and the hobbits just come across this bridge. I know people have proposed that Tom is really Eru Illuvatar, but it seems to me that Tom might be even above Eru, as Eru is still confined to the Lord of the Rings universe, whereas Tom isn't.
Agreed 100% Tom is one of my favorite carachters in my absolute favorite book. I hate what they did to his work. It's as if they read the book then, thought, "psh.. I can do better!" Then completely failed.
Tom Bombadil in rings of power is going to be so bad...absolute character assassination. The level of cringe in that show knows no limit.....hopefully they wont be able to call him tom bombadil do to rights issues that would be the one saving grace to this unmitigated disaster of show.
Tom Bombodil, in Rings of Power, won't sing, but I'd bet a nickel that he'll rapp non-stop (complete with beat-boxing). If lady Goldberry appears in the series at all, I predict that she'll be portrayed as a nagging, disrespectful girl-boss of color 'who don't need no man' and who keeps Tom around simply as a useful simp trapped in a eternal friend zone. Any bets?
I read The Hobbit first about 45 years ago, but never was interesting in LOTR. Now at 65 I’m reading The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time. I’ve just met Tom B. for the first time. So, this was a lovely, timely video.
A classic is a work in which you discover another layer, facet, or meaning every time you read. I have read Tolkien's works for half a century and will never be finished. They are never-dying friends.
Thank you for this channel. It truly, truly means a lot to me. I am a small and modest book collector myself. I just love your videos - especially - on Tolkien. Tom Bombadil is my favorite.
Thank you for creating this video and thus also for researching it and keeping it simple and without a lot of speculation which tends to enter when Bombadil is the subject. I leave feeling more knowledgable 🙂
This video was as enchanting as the topic. I am still smiling from ear to ear.
I could sit in a comfy chair and listen to You for hours. My love of Tolkien started at age 10 with the Hobbit. At 12 I got the 3 book set of The Lord of the Rings. I've been hooked ever since. (I'll be 60 in a few months).
Same for me.
I am 66 now.
Similar. Read the Hobbit at 9 and then devoured the larger work at 12. 57 now, with more than a dozen re-reads under my belt.
A short true tale for you all.
When my son Peter was 10, I said you must read The Hobbit, and gave him my copy. 2 months
later, he said that he had.
So, I said that I never expected the dragon to be killed by a sword.
He said, "I know, neither did I."
At was at this point, he was caught out.
Anyway, he then did read it and loved it.
you mirrored my experience buy I'm slightly older at 61 lol
So glad I discovered your wonderful channel !!
Top stuff!
I still have my 1968 Third Impression of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, the very book you held up. It was probably the latest you could get when I bought it and thus the book dates me as well.
I also have Tree and Leaf, and Smith of Wootton Major, from the same period.
This blend between fantasy, its development, and bibliographical context is such an eye-opener! Also, I spy a shiny new UA-cam plaque in the background ✨
Your passion for all things LOTR, and books, your fluid delivery, and your depth of knowledge is intoxicating. Well done.
Stumbled upon and loved this video so much. What a thoughtful but well researched venture into a legendary literary character’s historical underpinnings.
Also: what a backdrop! There’s a collection that I just know contains some gems! 👌👌
This is so informative and most of what was mentioned here are not even told by other YT Tolkienian channels.
Greetings from The Tolkien Curmudgeon: This was a great video. You touch on things I've been thinking about recently and I love seeing your first edition copy of "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" in your hand, too. Tolkien himself can be heard reading many of the poems from this volume by searching UA-cam. It's great to hear Tolkien's voice and delivery.
Great discussion and terrific delivery! Thank you .
I always thought of Tom Bombadil as one of those mysterious, unexplained beings that Tolkien likes to throw in every now and then. He's like a force of nature, maybe the spirit of the land. He has absolute power in his domain, and almost none outside it.
Thanks for this video, Tom. Very enjoyable and informative.
I will add a link to this video for our new JRRT Bibliography at TCG which I am working on this year. It will be a very good reference people can link to and enjoy.
So much interesting Tolkien lore. Thanks for sharing!!
I've never seen this history of Tom Bombadil laid out so completely before. Tom Bombadil is such a mystery, for some reason I connect him with the Green Man, maybe I have read it somewhere. Thank you for this very useful history Tom.
Something I'm unsure of is the creation of Old Man Willow. I don't know of any sort of preexisting tree based folklore that's Tolkien would have been taking from, but the malicious mess of the trees and the willows in particular are very reminiscent of the Ash from Phantastes which I know you've mentioned before as being a massive inspiration for much of Tolkien's works.
I first read The Lord of the Rings around 1967 or 1968, when I was a high school student. I'm also pretty sure I read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil before reading The Hobbit - I still have my paperback of the latter somewhere around LOL. I've read and re-read LOTR multiple times...including once in its French translation...I think it's about time for another read-through.
Oh, and I hated the fact that the Hobbits' visit to Tom was omitted in the films...and The Scouring of the Shire at the end.
The scouring of the shire wouldn't have fit in the movie, the climax was defeating sauron......adding tom bombadil to the movie would have led to more questions, which the book obviously did also, so yeah they should have added him just like the book
Cool, appreciate your passion. Who doesn't completely love Tom Bombadil.
A bit off topic, but from what you describe Tolkien must have been a wonderful father. He could have been distant like many fathers of that era, but instead he really got involved in his children's lives. Without this trait we would have never gotten to experience _The Lord of the Rings_ since he originally wrote _The Hobbit_ as a bedtime story for his own kids.
That was fascinating .. the character is an enigma and i'm quite happy that he and Goldberry remain so. I like to think that as 'Smith of Wooton Major' was able to venture into Faerie with the Fay star. Bombadil represents the 'Natural' world that links Middle Earth with this reality.
My favorite character! I always felt that he was a portrayal of Tolkien himself.
Also, I forgot about Roverandom! Stumbled across it as a child at the library. Great story.
Tolkien does actually have a character that portrays himself, and that is Faramir! He states so in one of his letters
I didn't know that this man has a youtube channel for longer videos. Just subscribed
yes i love old tom bombadil
Thank you for this. I’ve enjoyed your shorts about books but this has made me decide to reopen Tolkien after a few decades.
Fun fact. The name Tolkien is contained within the name Thorkelin who was the first translator of Beowulf. Cheers from Mercia.
Another crazy coincidence is if you read the numbers in the ring poem backwards it tells the year Tolkien died.
The little tidbit that is going to stick with me is that we almost got Bullroarer Took's story. I would absolutely love a story with really low stakes, that to the hobbits feels like the craziest thing that ever happened.
Thank you for sharing all that you share
Oh goodness rings of power are doing tom bombadil i wonder just how badly they are going too eff this up. Also first time viewing this channel, its a real cool idea to track character creation through writings.
Let me guess is he A BLACK GUY?
A TRANS PERSON? Something so NOT LOTR? :D
RoP show runners said T. Bombadil doesn’t have main character energy, which is sad because Tolkien considered producing a story for him making him the central hero and less silly for children. (This information can be found in one of Tolkien’s published letters.)
Bombadil also seems to be dressed as a rich country gentleman who owns an estated property, and at one time might have owned many large properties and took care of the forests. His description is reminiscent of a dandy…a gentleman who liked to dress up in bright/fine French colors.
From what RoP seems to be trying to do, they cut down on the silly (jumping straight up to the ceiling in LoTR, for example, is cartoonish) but still kept him a side character while giving him multiple estates, even in the far east.
Those showrunners are pure garbage who have defamed Tolkien & spit on his work.
@@teleriferchnyfainyou must hate the Jackson films.
It sort of comes off as a joke when Elrond explains that Tom Bombadil predates the creation of middle earth and all things. Tolkien wrote about Tom Bombadil before creating the LOTR and nobody in the realm of middle earth can explain who or what he is because he predated the creation of the world (to them).
I like your interpretation
That is the most literal interpretation of it, and I love it
Unfortunatley, your pronunciation of "Bonheddig" is off. But, as always, another fascinating video.
Woo.. that was very cool!
Thanks for the story 👍
Really excellent, thank you
Tom Bombadil's live action debut was in the 1991 Russian movie adaptation. Just saying.
"Bonheddig" is pronounced with dd as voiced th, like "this" or "that".
I remember as a child reading "Farmer Giles of Ham." I have no idea where this fits into the Tolkien oeuvre. Comments?
I think I’ll cover Farmer Giles in a future video!
Oh good. It's one of the earliest books I remember. I used to pester my mother to talk like Garm.
I have an old paperback titled _Smith of Wootton Major & Farmer Giles of Ham._ If you like 'Farmer Giles of Ham' you really should try 'Smith of Wootton Major.' Both are great reads.
After learning all of this, I think we do know who Tom is. He is Tolkiens childhood hero and he will always exist to Tolkien whether be it in middle earth or historical fiction. Where he came from in LOTR lore is relevant because he always has been in the mind of Tolkien
I want to watch this again with a fireplace and a cocoa. A book story.
Love Tom Bombadil. Alas, Prime's Rings of Power will stop at nothing to leave its scourge marks wherever it can on the Professor's great ouevre. "I look East, West, North, South, and I do not see Sauron; but I see that Saruman has many descendants. We Hobbits have against them no magic weapons. Yet, my gentlehobbits, I give you this toast: To the Hobbits. May they outlast the Sarumans and see spring again in the trees." --J.R.R. Tolkien
"The dark men out of Euskadi." Did this actually happen? Was there ever a Basque migration to Britain?
He answered the question of who Tom is. He's the spirit of the vanishing Oxford countryside.
Not me thinking I could easily produce works this great if I could only be only bothered to write stuff down 😅
I adore Tom Bombadil!
What do you mean there are no theories of who is Tom Bombadil?
He's either a Valar who went off on his own, either the equal or mightier than Manwe, or he's a manifestation of Eru himself.
He doesn't engage in combat because he hates violence and knows his unleashed powers will damage Middle Earth along with Sauron.
Hey Tom, thanks for the interesting video on a fellow Tom.
Just my two cents: it’s a bit awkward for you to read out the chapter headings in your videos. It just sounds like awkward sentences as it runs up against your other narration. I think it would be better to just present the titles without narration and maybe include a short music segment there.
Dark men from Euskadi? Ok now my mind has completely blown out
He was a language scholar, after all.
I love the idea of Tom, but i hated his placement in Lord of the Rings
So Tom is an easter egg, a cameo, even a break of the fourth wall, and has no significant role in Middle Earth. Cool.
What are your predictions for the next video?
Love your channel. As for "The Rings of Power", weeeell... Not so much, let's leave it at that.
The next victim in Rings of Power.
It's ok, you just hate it because the internet tells you to. In twenty years the next generation will see it as a misunderstood classic just like the Star Wars prequels are with Gen Z. [this is the part you laugh like a moron instead of having an independent opinion]
@@BadgerOfTheSeaBut of course in this case, "having an independent opinion" means agreeing with you.
@@BadgerOfTheSeasorry but rings of power has nothing to do with Tolkien’s work. Just because you say “I’m supposed to like it for what it is” is bs. It’s trash. But like it if you want, has nothing to do with tolkiens world period
@@BadgerOfTheSea I have an independent opinion, RofP is complete and utter crap and once you grow up you will too.
Not gonna lie Bingo Baggins had me Rollin! Can you imagine?😂😂😂
i hear rings of power i close the video.
Who else thinks Peter Jackson should play Tom Bombadil?
Not me. 😬🤨
Great stuff… to bad the creators of the Rings of Power didn’t read any of the books that involve similar named characters in the same world they are failing to portray
😊
Sorry, but not even Tom Bombadil is enough to make me watch the absolute insult to Tolkien's memory that is The Rings of Power. It is an unmitigated dumpster fire. No, thanks.
But on the matter of Tom Bombadil himself, this makes him seem sort of like a metacharacter in the Lord of the Rings. Sort of like he's above the story. Like he lives in this pocket universe, at the meeting point of all of Tolkien's stories, and the hobbits just come across this bridge. I know people have proposed that Tom is really Eru Illuvatar, but it seems to me that Tom might be even above Eru, as Eru is still confined to the Lord of the Rings universe, whereas Tom isn't.
Agreed 100% Tom is one of my favorite carachters in my absolute favorite book. I hate what they did to his work. It's as if they read the book then, thought, "psh.. I can do better!" Then completely failed.
Well this is one way to make the rings of power look good...hoho goldberry.😂
Many reckon tomare the most powerful
Isn't this guy a cutie?! He looks like a friendly Hobbit.
Your gesticulating is as if you were Italian
Tom Bombadil in rings of power is going to be so bad...absolute character assassination. The level of cringe in that show knows no limit.....hopefully they wont be able to call him tom bombadil do to rights issues that would be the one saving grace to this unmitigated disaster of show.
I’m interested in books which is why I subscribe to your channel. Maybe you could change the name of your channel to The Lord of the Rings Channel. 😐
They will F up Tom just like they F'd up Galadriel. I would rather have YOU read about him, to us.
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So "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" is as opposed to the ur-hobbit Tom who lived above ground?
Please don’t bring up the rings of power. Such a disgrace to tolkiens world
Tom Bombodil, in Rings of Power, won't sing, but I'd bet a nickel that he'll rapp non-stop (complete with beat-boxing). If lady Goldberry appears in the series at all, I predict that she'll be portrayed as a nagging, disrespectful girl-boss of color 'who don't need no man' and who keeps Tom around simply as a useful simp trapped in a eternal friend zone. Any bets?
I'd bet you've never read a book.
Are they going to make him black, gay and a woman?
Oh no. Ring of power is gonna ruin Goldberry and Tom Bombadil? Oh no. Why??? Damn you bezos. Leave Bombadil alone…
DISLIKE AND BLOCK for even mentining 'the rings of power' in affirmative way
WOW!