LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 07 - In the House of Tom Bombadil

[davem]

First of all, let me say how glad I am that we've begun with a proper discussion of Goldberry!

I have to say I found Martinez's essay to display a slightly 'political' bias - Goldberry starts out as a young woman looking for a man, & ends up a mother figure (without, as Bethberry points out, any children).

This, for me, is simply another version of the TomandGoldberry scenario. Goldberry is only 'complete' when she has Tom. I see her marriage to Tom as 'enhancing' her nature rather than 'fixing' her.

Another thing I don't get is this desire for the young Goldberry to be 'nice' & playful. Goldberry is the daughter of the Withywindle, a powerful, magical force. The incident with Tom is depicted in a light hearted, playful fashion, but so are the other encounters, with OMW & the Barrow Wight. Tom's response is exactly the same with all of them - he commands them to go back to sleep. It seems I'm alone in preferring an empowered, dangerous, feminine force of nature, while everyone else is wanting a safe nurturing housewifely type!

I think its essential to realise that we are not dealing with human beings here, but with powers of nature in human form. This is an extreme form of anthropomorphism on Tolkien's part.

Anyway, to jump to Tom, an observation: when he is telling them of his own history:

When they caught his words again they found that he had now wandered into strange regions beyond their memory & beyond their waking thought, into times when the world was wider, & the seas flowed straight to the Western Shore; & still on & back Tom went singing out into ancient starlight, when only the Elf-sires were awake. Then suddenly he stopped, & they saw that he nodded as if he was falling asleep.

Its almost as if he is moving back in time, back through his own existence, & as he approaches the point in time when he first awoke, he moves back towards unconsciousness - does anybody get what I mean?