[Bêthberry]

Intriguing replies, Pitchwife and Morthoron. It is a pity the Downs moves so slowly these days, as it is difficult to give out rep points and be able to return to you both to rep your posts.

Of course there are dozens of mythological figures that provide some provenance for both Goldberry and Tom; however, the degree of similar characteristics between Tom and Vainamoienen in the Kalevala beg us to at least consider where Goldberry might fit in that similarity. Any similarity between Goldberry and Aino does not lie in specific details but in simply their relationship with their male counterparts. Both are tales of the relationship between male and female figures in mythology; it is the sexual tension that intriguingly suggests the provenance. Yes, Aino is told she must provide milk-pots and honey cake for this husband, which is Goldberry's domestic role, and her plaint is that she must marry this old man because of his power and a promise made by a male member of her family and leave her beloved first home. Aino's fate is the fate of many a woman who resisted forced marriage; there are a good many Christian saints who preferred their chastity to forced marriage and a relationship with other women. This is not the fate of Goldberry, but woven in the two tales is the relationship of the young girl with her mother and expectations of a girl leaving her family to marry. In both tales there is some play of sexual tension, with Goldberry initiating the relationship by pulling Tom into the water and then escaping, and then with Aino reappearing as the unusual salmon/perch/trout, only to escape again from the violence of the knife. Goldberry does not escape as Tom "caught her, held her fast! Water-rats went scuttering/reeds hissed, herons cried; and her heart was fluttering" (The Adventures of Tom Bombadil)

I don't push this comparison too far and like Morth's point that Tom and Goldberry should simply be seen as embodiments of wood and water, personifications of nature and a nod to so many mythological figures. Yet it strikes me that there is another similarity here, which shows Tolkien's desire to depict women satisfied with the social expectations of a woman in marriage. Eowyn forsakes her wishes for her own power and freedom from societal restraint and finds domestic success with Faramir. Tolkien replaces the violent sundering of Aino and Vainamoienen with a satisfying domestic relationship between Tom and Goldberry. After all, Tom recognises he has removed Goldberry from her childhood home and so brings her the beloved water lilies.