He is not a hobbit, neither a man, but what is he? Is he a dwarf? A wizard? A god? Something else entirely?
He’s a cool dude
And his boots are yellow!
He is a character who is not connected to the main conflict in the story in any way, and is meant to show that the world of middle earth is much larger and more mysterious than what the hobbits/men/elves/orcs are fighting over. His back story was left as a mystery on purpose. The simplest explanation to accept is that you’re just not supposed to know.
There is a whole lot of fan theory and actual letters from Tolkien himself explaining (or rather not explaining) the character.
I like the theory that he is Eru Iluvatar.
Tolkien was just retelling legends, folktales, fairy tales, children’s bedtime stories etc. He did piece them together to create extended connected lore, but not everything gets cleanly explained away in this kind of worldbuilding technique.
So really imo Tom Bombadil is just some contrivance of Tolkien to make the story feel more like some old fairy tale.
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My opinion: mostly obnoxious and good he was left out of the movie.
Tom Bombadil was basically JRR Tolkien’s id.
Freelance heating engineer.
He’s a merry fellow, bright blue his jacket is and his boots are yellow.
Hey dol merry dol, ring a ding a dillo
He’s just this guy, you know?
Yes.
Tom represents the incomplete knowledge of mankind and our pre-modern inability to firmly grasp the natural world we live in (and to some extent our continued struggle).
The fantasy world of Middle-Earth is in most ways supernatural to our own. So how much more incomplete would our understanding and knowledge of it been?
Tolkien was a professor of language and mythology and steeped in the ancient epics of the Anglo-saxons and Norse cultures. His career was putting together what these people knew and how they saw the world, but also what they couldn’t understand and how they explained their ignorance.
Others here are hinting at what Tom is, but not why he is. He’s a manifestation of ignorance. That’s why pinning him down is so tricky. It’s like pointing at a shadow with a flashlight.
I like this answer. Mine would’ve been “spirit of nature incarnate” or similar, but this captures why I think that.
Tom Bombadil is trustworthy in that he was understood to be incorruptible by the ring. However, he wasn’t a trustworthy holder of the ring because he’d probably lose it because he didn’t feel the gravity of it. Tom Bombadil is good and trustworthy, but ultimately uncontrollable.
Very good analogy. Questioning Tom Bombadil’s role in Middle Earth is the reason Tolkien included him, in my mind at least. The reader sees him as mysterious, mystical, alien, and seemingly detached from the world around him. And we try to fit him into the rest of the world, but not everything fits into nice little boxes. Some aspects of life will always be unknowable. The same goes for history and myth, which Tom seems to be very related to.
I’d argue that he’s overly attached. He doesn’t care about the ring any more than a mountain cares about clumate change, and for much the same reason.
When I read about him, the first thing that came to mind is the concept of the “original man” from Manichaeism. However, the Lord of the Rings, being a trilogy that owes itself to Catholicism, would rule anything relating to Manichaeism out as a correct interpretation.
A merry fellow, of course, he says so right in his song
Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master: His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.
What is there not to get?
He’s old, very old
