The Trickster in LotR

[littlemanpoet]

Though difficult to define, the Trickster is certainly recognizable and identifiable, or this discussion could not have even been begun.

Allow me to give evidence, from the Tom Bombadil poems.... (bolds mine)

Old Tom in summertime walked about the meadows
gathering the buttercups, running after shadows,
tickling the bumblebees that buzzed among the flowers,
sitting by the waterside for hours upon hours.

There his beard dangled long down into the water:
up came Goldberry, the River-woman's daughter;
pulled Tom's hanging hair. In he went a-wallowing
under the water-lilies, bubbling and a-swallowing.

Up woke Willow-man, began upon his singing,
sang Tom fast asleep under branches swinging;
in a crack caught him tight: snick! it closed together,
trapped Tom Bombadil, coat and hat and feather.

Bombadil orders Willow-man to let him out. It starts raining. Badgers take him captive underground, saying they'll never let him out; he commands them to show him out and go back to sleep. They do, begging his pardon!

Then the barrow-wight gets loose at night and threatens Tom; Tom orders the bw back underground. Barrow-wight obeys. You don't have any sense in all of this for the gut wrenching fear of the hobbits, as is found in LotR.

Next day he captures Goldberry and takes her home. She seemed to be willing, since their wedding was merry, but it's like he commands and she obeys!

"Bombadil Goes Boating" has more of the LotR feel by comparison, although the whimsicality is still there. Yes, all the dark and negative and chaos has been removed; so Bombadil, as Tolkien's Trickster, is "scrubbed", as it were, and all that dark does appear to be cast off onto poor Gollum, the culture hero that has captured the imagination of the world, it seems, not least because of that movie...