Now there's an interesting juxtaposition: Tom Bombadil applicable as an Adam figure, and Tom Bombadil having a pagan aspect to him. I like the combination, even if they do seem contradictory on the face of it. Harking back to a not so recent post anymore, Tom is perhaps an Adam type who became pagan because English speakers were pagan. But I think there's more. I don't think you can have a true Adam without a pagan component. Wow! Now, isn't this a major tangent? But maybe not. Perhaps, what starched shirt xians call pagan is actually being in tune with the natural world, which we are given to understand, our Adams or whoever our history calls them, were. Somehow this does have something to do with why it FEELS different near the Shire, but I'm just brain gushing at the moment and can't see it clearly. Can anybody help?
|