Who or What is Tom Bombadil?

[davem]

Originally Posted by drigel

dont forget cruel Caradhras

"...longer than Sauron" is significant, almost Bombadillian.

perhaps there are just as many good and friendly things in the world as well

Or that passage from TH:

For just at that moment the light came over the hill, and there was a mighty twitter in the branches. William never spoke for he stood turned to stone as he stooped; and Bert and Tom were stuck like rocks as they looked at him. And there they stand to this day, all alone, unless the buds perch on them; for trolls, as you probably know, must be underground before dawn, or they go back to the stuff of the mountains they are made of, and never move again. That is what had happened to Bert and Tom and William.

So it does seem that the 'stuff' of M-e can come alive if it is inhabited by spirit/fea. But if Bombadil is the 'spirit of Arda' then we are dealing with something very like the Gaia concept of James Lovelock. Yet what is Goldberry? Tom cannot be the spirit of the whole of Arda if Goldberry is also the spirit of part of it ('Daughter of the River'). Its possible that both Tom & Goldberry are the male & female aspects of the spirit of Arda. Tom may be the 'earth' element & Goldberry the 'water' element. Tom seems to have a strong relationship with, & control over, the earth & the things that grow/live in it - OMW, Badgers, the Barrow Wights, while Goldberry rules water, clouds, rain.

As has been noted before they do seem to be 'reflections' of Celeborn & Galadriel (who almost seem to be 'higher harmonics' of them).