About Bombadil

[Curufin]

See, I have a very different conception of Eru.

I see him as being benevolent, but not necessarily completely 'good.' I see him as having understanding so far above that of which anyone (even the Valar) could conceive that often his plans seem mysterious and even 'wrong.'

I don't think Fëanor or Melkor messed up anything from Eru's point of view - an omniscient, all-powerful, all-knowing being like Eru is supposed to be would have known what they were going to do even before he created them. Therefore, he had to have created them for a purpose. I believe that purpose was the creation of a greater good...

"for lo! through
Melko have terror as fire, and sorrow like dark waters, wrath like thunder, and evil as far from my light as the depths of the uttermost of the dark places, come into the design that I laid before you. Through him has pain and misery been made in the clash of overwhelming musics; and with confusion of sound have cruelty, and ravening, and darkness, loathly mire and all putrescence of thought or thing, foul mists and violent flame, cold without mercy, been born, and death without hope. Yet is this through him and not by him; and he shall see, and ye all likewise, and even shall those beings, who must now dwell among his evil and endure through Melko misery and sorrow, terror and wickedness, declare in the end that it redoundeth only to my great glory, and doth but make the theme more worth the hearing, Life more worth the living, and the World so much the more wonderful and marvellous, that of all the deeds of Iluvatar it shall be called his mightiest and his loveliest."

Eru twice claims responsibility for what Melkor has done - "yet this is through him and not by him" (implying it is by Eru) and "of all the deeds of Ilúvatar..."

Just interesting food for thought.

[Gordis]

About Eru: I think you have to disregard either his words or his actions. They don't fit together.

But back to Tom.
In the LOTR drafts there used to be a conversation between Treebeard and Pippin on the subject of Tom Bombadil. Pity it is lost in LOTR

"’What about Tom Bombadil, though?’ asked Pippin. ’He lives on the Downs close by. He seems to understand trees.’
’What about whom?’ said Treebeard. ’Tombombadil? Tombombadil? So that is what you call him. Oh, he has got a very long name. He understands trees, right enough; but he is not an Ent. He is no herdsman. He laughs and does not interfere. He never made anything go wrong, but he never cured anything, either. Why, why, it is all the difference between walking in the fields and trying to keep a garden; between, between passing the time of day to a sheep on the hillside, or even maybe sitting down and studying sheep till you know what they feel about grass, and being a sheperd. (Treebeard, The Treason of Isengard)

[Curufin]

Interesting conversation!

And Tom is back to being completely enigmatic. It sounds like he's a watcher; an observer, but does nothing to actually affect anything that is going on around him. Except with the Hobbits, where he certainly saves their lives...

[Gordis]

Look what a funny little fic I have found.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1534858/..._the_Dark_Lord

Looks like another Tom theory

[ecthelion]

This is one of the best!

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

I have to agree with Val. I always thought that Tom was a Maia

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

I agree that he has to be a Maia in the strict sense of the term. Any of the spirits that came from Eru in the beginning that aren't Valar are Maiar, no? So if Tom is a spirit from the beginning, from outside Ea, and he's not one of the Valar, then he is a Maia. And he has to be such, for if he is of Arda he would be tainted by Melkor which he doesn't seem to be.

So I don't think he's a Maia like Melian, who came from Valinor to ME and decided to stay. I don't think he's a leftover Maia from when the Valar left ME the first time. I think he came from outside and settled in ME and therefore none of the internal politics of the world are important to him.

All of the above of course is IMO.

[Jon S.]

Tom is like the proverbial Schrodenger's cat. When we're not focused on him, he exists akin to an unrealized quantum wave function in which all possible identities coexist simultaneously with fuzzy borders. But when we, as sentients, actively assess (measure) his identity through whatever personal yardsticks each of us elects to adopt as our own, we collapse the Bombadil wave function, yielding a determinacy in which one specific identity becomes tangible while the remainder subcede.

Hence, my vote remains with "enigma."