I was thinking more of the whole yellow boots and funky rhymes routine. How many writers can you think of who could get away with "ring a ding dillo" only a little over a hundred pages into their masterwork without shattering their creative authority? That's a short list, my friend. I think Tolkien pulls it off because we sense oceans of time and a vast potency to Tom beneath the silly veneer.
You're absolutely right that unexplained (and ultimately inexplicable) phenomena such as Bombadil add to the effect of making Middle-earth seem real, as do conflicting accounts of the past and the outright misinformation of some characters.
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