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Illustrious Ulair
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
Posts: 4,240
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Originally Posted by Sir Kohran
I disagree totally. Bombadil reads like an anachronism - his bizarre behaviour, his bumbling attitude, his strange speaking habits - all in all he reads more like a character from The Hobbit than LOTR. His insertion into the tale seems entirely random and somewhat tedious, and I'd say this one of very few points where Tolkien's writing falters somewhat.
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This from a post of mine in the Chapter by Chapter read through:
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So, what stories does he tell the hobbits, exactly?
He begins, with the place they’re in - the Old Forest. He tells them its nature & history, the stories of its inhabitants, giving them an insight into the place they’re in. then his stories take them out from the forest into the hills of the Barrow Downs. He takes them, also, back in time, back through the history of the Land, but his stories don’t stop there:
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When they caught his words again they found that he had now wandered into strange regions beyond their memory & beyond their waking thought (but not beyond their ‘sleeping’ thought?), into times when the world was wider, & the seas flowed straight to the western Shore; & still on & back Tom went singing out into the starlight, when the Elf-sres were awake.....The hobbits sat still before him, enchated; & it seemed as if, under the spell of his words, the wind had gone, , & the clouds had dried up, & the day had been withdrawn, & darkness had come from east & west, & all the sky was filled with the light of white stars...
Whether the morning & evening of one day or of many days had passed Frodo could not tell. He did not feel either hungry or tired, only filled with wonder. the stars shone through the window & the silence of the heavens seemed to be round him.
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They have been transported from the everyday world, with the earth solid beneath their feet, back to the begining, where the stars of Elbereth shine in the silence. But still, Tom is there, his voice speaking out of that silence. And he is going to tell them something important, something vital - he tells them to ‘mark my words, my friends’:
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Tom was here before the river & the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop & the first acorn He made paths before the Big People & saw the little People arriving . He was here before the Kings & the graves & the Barrow Wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, befor the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless-before the Dark Lord came from Outside.
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What Tom is telling them is that his ‘stories’ are not simply stories - they are his own memories - he is telling them of his own experiences. But this visionary experience doesn’t end with Tom standing in the fearless dark, beneath the stars, something else is to culminate the whole mystical experience:
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A shadow seemed to pass by the window, & the hobbits glanced hastily through the panes. When they turned again, Goldberry stood in the door behind, framed in light. She held a candle, shielding the flame from the draught with her hand: & the light flowed through it, like sunlight through a white shell.
‘The rain has ended,’ she said; ‘and new waters are running downhill, under the stars. Let us now laugh & be glad!’
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We’ve gone back to the begining of the world, guided by Tom Bombadil, & who do we find awaiting us, bearing a light in her hand, echoing the Secret Fire, telling us that new waters are flowing under the stars, but Goldberry, the River Daughter!
Finally, what do we make of Tom’s verse:
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Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!
By water, wood & hill, by the reed & willow,
By fire, sun & moon, hearken now & hear us!
Come Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!
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This is a kind of ‘invocation’ - Tom is called by invoking the elements of the Land - water & earth, the living plants & trees (including the ‘dread’ Willow!), the (the ‘Secret’?)‘fire’, & finally, by the lights of heaven, the Sun & the Moon. They are to call on the elements of the Land beneath & the heavens above them, to bring Tom to their aid, & if they do so, he will come to them.
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Originally Posted by SK
Also, showing him laughing at the Ring would destroy all the sense of danger that has been built up around it previously. Finally a man in yellow boots singing a tree to sleep is frankly ridiculous, especially when put into movies that have been praised so much for their realistic view of fantasy.
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No it wouldn't - anymore than it does in the books. One of the main differences between book & movies is Tolkien's subtle exploration of the nature & power of the Ring, as opposed to Jackson's over-simplification of it.
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The movies had a sense of mystery,
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No - they just had an air of confusion.
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