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

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

West is the Good direction in Tolkien's mythology, apparently because that's where the Valar chose to dwell after the destruction of the Lamps - a west wind is always a good thing, for example. It seems to me that this is simply a result of the geography of Europe. To a European, west is the direction of the Sea and of sea-longing - just as here on the east coast of the U.S. I've always thought of east as the good or special direction. A large part of the feeling of the west in the Legendarium can be summed up in the image of a person standing on the shore, gazing westward toward Valinor.

Of course, in C.S. Lewis's Narnia books, east is the Good direction, which would seem to blow a hole in my theory.

Maybe Tolkien is looking at it from a mainland European way, and C.S. Lewis is looking at it from an English (Wales doesn't even have an East coast, and Lewis was not Scottish or Irish).


Anyway...

I seem to feel that for some reason, Tom is on a different level to the ring, he is more eathy, more base material (I don't really know how to put it).

Tom is unaffected by mortal troubles, and even Maiaric(?) troubles, I think (except for the whole "Last as he was first" thing). But he is still alive, which I think makes him even more interesting, not like the Ainu who are not really alive (I supose you could argue agaisnt that...)

But now I've been reminded of a completely different idea which I mentioned above: Is the fact that Sam doesn't doesn't dream here important? Does it show that he is not affected by things? ... Or am I just overthinking an unimportant idea?