I recently read a post on tumblr (I know, not a legitimate source) that brought up a really interesting idea. It discussed how Tom Bombadil could be the Tolkien inserting himself into the story and world. The character "is eldest, because he existed before the books" he isn't affected by the Ring and has enough power to fight against the darkness by himself, but he chooses not to for the sake of the readers. The way Tom feels about his wife is also indicative of being drawn from Tolkien's own love for Edith. This all suggests that Tom Bombadil is not originally of Middle Earth.
As a writer, I understand how hard it is to keep yourself out of your characters. It is impossible. Writing is such an emotional experience, for me at least, that I can never leave myself and my feelings on the side while I write in a world of my creation.
Maybe this is Tolkien wanting to actually live in this world and intentionally giving himself a way to be there, or maybe he hadn't intended it at all. Personally, I think he did intend it because you could get rid of the whole Old Forest chapter and it wouldn't ruin the plot line of the story. So either, Tolkien wanted to play around a little in his world, or it has some other meaning which further explains the natures of his characters.
Having researched a bit about Tom Bombadil since he's my pseudonym, I think I'm familiar with some of the theories about the purpose of his presence in The Fellowship. Most of them theorize that he's symbolic of nature or a religious concept. But your theory is actually the first I've seen that proposes that Tom Bombadil is just Tolkien "in disguise" so to speak within his own story. That actually makes a lot of sense, especially when considering Bombadil's relationship with the Ring (how it has no power of him or he over it). It's true that authors oftentimes like to reflect themselves into their stories in some way or another, through an explicit character or through the traits of other characters. I think creating this allusive, if slightly useless in regards to the storyline (although I do love Bombadil), character would be quite a clever way for Tolkien to implement an easter egg of himself! Good thinking!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting idea for sure! with my limited experience in creative writing I have definitely had trouble avoiding identifying myself with the main character. If Tolkien recognized that and decided to channel that energy into a side character that could be a really cool way of dealing with it.
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