View Single Post
Old 02-21-2002, 11:54 PM   #9
Man-of-the-Wold
Wight
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: With Tux, dread poodle of Pinnath Galin
Posts: 239
Man-of-the-Wold has just left Hobbiton.
Sting

Quote:
It states that he chose for himself a brooch set with blue stones, many-shaded like flax-flowers or the wings of blue butterflies. He looked long at it, as if stirred by some memory, shaking his head, and saying at last:

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Here's a pretty toy for Tom and for his lady! Fair was she who long ago wore this on her shoulder. Goldberry shall wear it now, and we will not forget her!'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who was this woman that Tom is speaking of?
Well, it certainly isn't Goldberry, because Bombadil intends to give the brooch to his lady, so that they might both remember her of whom he speaks. It is generally assumed that this was some princess or lady of the Cardolan Dúnedain, who for several generations dwelt in the Barrow-Downs area, which had long before been an Eddaic burial area, as well. As decendents of Elf-friends, these people should naturally have been friends with Tom and Goldberry. She may have been one of the last ones, who died with the Great Plague, since the Barrow that was being exposed was definitely Dúneddaic (witness the daggers for the Hobbits), and it is rumored to be that of the Last Prince of the Cardolan royal family. It seems fitting to remember such a Dúnedain as the great and beautiful person that she would have been, despite the tragic circumstances of Arnor and its divisions, and also, although it is not such a great expanse of time in the context of the all the Books, not to mention Tom's supposed existence, this Cardolan noble women would have lived well over a thousand years prior.
__________________
The hoes unrecked in the fields were flung, __ and fallen ladders in the long grass lay __ of the lush orchards; every tree there turned __ its tangled head and eyed them secretly, __ and the ears listened of the nodding grasses; __ though noontide glowed on land and leaf, __ their limbs were chilled.
Man-of-the-Wold is offline   Reply With Quote