Bombadil: One of the Blue Wizards?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Sarumian

Maiar and Valar are kinds of Ainur, aren't them? I would say Bombadil shows powers comparable to those of a Maia. If we opt for the idea Bombadil is an Ainu, we have to decide if he came into the world with the host of Valar, participated the creation and stays in ME since they left, or he came independently and did not take part in the creation, just watched it. In the first case he either was left for some purpose or simply defected. He well may belong to those other orders of creatures mentioned, but, again, his powers are similar to those of a maia and Gandalf for some reasons makes the comparison.

I meant Bombadil as an Ainu comparable to the Valar. Bur it seems clear that he entered Arda alone, not with the them, and had aims quite different from theirs. However, his lacking the power to defeat Sauron the Maia would seem to put him at at a lower, or at best equal, level of creation than Sauron

Which leads back to Gandalf, and him being the only one who really seems to have a clue about who Tom really was. Maybe Gandalf merely knew him to be a fellow Maia who had come to Middle-earth on his own long before the awakening of the Elves, like Melian and (I think) Ungoliant.

[leapofberen]

Bombadil aside, Tolkien reckoned that the Blue Wizards fell as Saruman did in one of his many letters (211 in Letters, though perhaps he was not certain...

[They were as] Missionaries to enemy occupied lands as it were [the far East of ME]. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and "magic" traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.

That seems to run awry of the nature of Bombadil, both within LOTR and Tolkien's other letters. Not to mention the extreme geographic differences of the Blue Wizards and Bombadil throughout the Third Age.

From a completely personal pov, I obtain the sense that Bombadil is simply too ancient, unaffected, earthy and aloof to have been one of the Istari sent to Middle Earth. Besides, Gandalf goes to see him at the end of The Return stating that while he has been a stone doomed to roll, Bombadil has been a quote:

moss gatherer...but my rolling days are ending, and now we shall have much to say to one another.

This seems to say to me that Gandalf held Bombadil in a regard unlike that of the other Istari anyhow.