What (who) is Tom Bombadil ?

Appearing only in a few pages of FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, with few mentions elsewhere, and not appearing in most adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Tom Bombadil has always captured the imagination of readers. We look at who Tom is, which is really more an examination of WHAT Tom is. And, we look carefully at the recent and significant depiction of the merry fellow on TV screens. The show also introduces listeners to a hand-made Tolkien necklace as part of the growing support for THE TOLKIEN PODCAST.

Visit our sponsor: https://kellyannie.com/products/jrr-tolkien-necklace

Transcript

SPONSOR: The Tolkien Podcast wants to thank Kelly Annie Jewelry, that specializes in hand-made coin jewelry, including this necklace made from the £2 coin from the UK, commemorating his life in 2023.

Greetings and welcome to the Token Podcast. I am your host, Larry D. Curtis, a long time token reader and a journalist who has covered token related content for 25 years now. Today's episode, The Sixth, is all about the enigmatic Tom Bombadil. I will try to get right to the point with Tom, and I'm also likely to cause some controversy with this episode, with some strong opinions about him in adaptations of Tolkien's works.

I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, the place that just managed to lose the Sundance Film Festival, but I have traveled around the United States to Oceana and to Europe to give presentations on token, often for a fan website. I was also invited to be an embedded journalist on the set of The Hobbit films. Well, not only was I invited, I went.

I was an embedded journalist on the set of The Hobbit films. I don't typically talk about my credentials, especially off the top, but we are finding a new and growing audience with each episode, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to take a moment to revisit who is behind the voice here. The hope is that this episode will be shorter than the others for various reasons, but I do seem to get carried away when discussing the works of Tolkien, because I find it so interesting.

I hope you find it interesting too. And by the way, thanks for growing the show. Each episode takes time and attention, probably more than it should. I'm sure there's professional and great podcasters who who whip through these things, but that is not me, so I try to fit it in with the rest of my passions in my life and my creative works that I, you know, want to make.

And and I'm trying to also feed myself and pay the rent. So all I hope is that somebody, somewhere wants to take the time and listen when I invest the time to make these podcasts. By the way, you can contact the show via email. That email is the talking podcast@gmail.com. You can complain. You can say thanks.

You can suggest things to talk about in the future. You can disagree, but I just would love to hear from you. This episode has a sponsor, which is a first, and it's genuinely unique. And I will even say a special handmade token related item. I'll be giving out a website and some details later. And I suspect the least you'll want to write down and, look up an exceptional piece of jewelry.

It's funny to me that we write things down and we look things up, but that's English. That's what we do. Anyway, let's get on with the show. For those who may not know or may not remember clearly in the Lord of the rings books, I'm talking about books. Frodo and his hobbit friends flee the Shire, and they make a series of stops on their way to bring and discuss the One Ring at the Council of Elrond.

It's a series of scary things, broken up by stops in safety. They call Elrond's house the last homely house. Well, there's other homely houses before that, so they find safety. They also find help unexpected help more than once. In fact, several times in one of those stops, after Mary and Pippin fall asleep and get partially captured or consumed or eaten by a mean old willow tree.

Sam and Frodo yell for help, and the topic of the episode, Tom Bombadil, shows up, and, using the power of his song and his voice, sets the wee lads free, meaning Mary, and Tom takes them to his house, his safe house, his holy house, you might say, near the Old forest. For some rest and some reprieve. A reprieve, I believe, is how we say that.

And some rest. So they stay safely in Tom's house? They hear a bunch of stories. We're going to get some quotes, then they leave, and then they need further rescue, and they fall victim to a burrow. White, a scary undead creature with a treasure hoard. They sing a verse that Tom taught them, and once again, Bombadil shows up and sings The Danger Away.

He also makes gifts out of some of the treasure, which means each of the hobbits leave, the harrowing adventure with an ancient elven dagger. Tom sends him on to Bree. Now, if your exposure to middle earth is only through the Peter Jackson films, and there are lots of people like that, you don't know who Tom Bombadil is.

Likewise, if you listen to the BBC radio play, there is no Bombadil further. If you are old enough or dedicated enough to have sought out the 1970s Ralph Bakshi animated Lord of the rings film No Bombadil, and by the way, I recommend both of all of those adaptations if you haven't tried them, especially now if you've watched season two of the Amazon Lord of the rings ring, it's rings, right?

Rings of power series. There was some Bombadil, and I'll have a hot take about that shortly, but let's get the Bombadil basics covered first. Tom saves the hobbits aforementioned tree and then hosts them and sings the story of the of and tells them the story of the world I think they sing to, and Frodo asks him who he is.

Now Tom often speaks in the third person and names himself. He'll say things about himself. So he says to Frodo, and I think we should really careful attention to Tom here. He he says, remember, this guy names himself often, don't. He says, quote, don't you know my name yet? That's the only answer yet. People are always asking, who is Tom Bombadil?

Well, that's already an answer. He is Tom Bombadil. If I meet somebody and they say, who are you? I answer, I am Larry. That's the answer. So when fans ask, who is Tom? But sometimes, by the way, when I say I'm Larry Ellison, what's your last name? Well, I'm Larry Curtis. Tom's given them both names right away.

So when fans ask who is Tom Bombadil, they really know who he is. They just answered their own question. I think what they really mean is, what is Tom Bombadil? And if you pay careful attention, you hear someone ask that and there's a discussion. Or you can find it in online forums, probably forever. What follows the question, who is Tom Bombadil?

Most of it actually focuses on what is Tom Bombadil? Is he one of the demigods that created middle earth? Is he a powerful being like Gandalf or Sauron or Saruman? Is he something else, like the Eagles that seem to be something else? Or like a go client who seems to be something else? Again, just repeating. Tom says, don't you know my name yet?

That's the only answer. Knowing the Lord of the rings, the free peoples and the other inhabitants of middle earth are clearly divided into groups. There's hobbits, no elves and men and wizards and orcs. Well, and and goblins and dwarves and Gondor, eons and Easter lings. And everybody seems to have a classification. This, kind of oversimplification about people and how how we work in tribes, has been much copied in Dungeons and Dragons and other places putting fantasy readers probably you if you ever Tolkien interests probably me if I have a talking interest.

It puts fantasy readers or or fantasy, fans, as we should say, even more into the mindset that everybody we meet in the fantasy world has a classification. It's too bad we can't hire like in the real world. We can't find a level one plumber, that we don't have to pay very much to get a new, like, showerhead and then a level ten plumber to fix our sewer leak.

But things aren't that simple. That's really not how it works in the real world. So, the classifications aren't so neat. Now, when The Silmarillion. So Tolkien published the Lord of the rings in 1954 or 1955, I think I say that every episode. But it's important, I think, to have context. So, decades later, when The Silmarillion was published in 1977, we fantasy readers, I say we, I, I was alive, but certainly not a reader, and I certainly wasn't looking forward to some brilliant.

But, meaning we, the greater nerd community, I guess the greater Tolkien community. In 1977, when when The Silmarillion was published, suddenly there was a full array of possible classifications of other beings in Arda who more closely aligned with the possibilities of Tom Bombadil, including the creators of Arda readers, Tolkien. I also learned who the elves really were and how we got them, how they came to middle earth, and who the dwarves really were and who was responsible for them, which plays into this very episode if we get to it.

But I have a feeling we're not going to. So more than ever, readers wondered, what is Tom since that time games, dad included, will create rules and classifications to fit characters in. In that world, Dungeon Masters will invent like constraints or rules to govern everything and everybody because they have to have, you know, hit points or damage or their or their songs or d20 times ten confusion.

They cause confusion or the same lake effects as a mega level charm spell or something similar. Dungeon Masters have to make everything kind of fit in the rules in other games as well. I don't know. Or are Dungeon Masters universal to games or is it D&D only? I don't actually know, but we read Tolkien. Probably were doing those games to at least some of us, or when we discussed the films, we aren't in a game and Tolkien is the creator of middle earth.

In Arda, middle earth is the continent, Arda is the world simplified and he, the creator, intentionally doesn't tell us what Tom is. And as we will read, he actually told us to quit asking. So back to the Lord of the rings. Frodo and company are rescued by Tom and they they listen to Tom. They stay the night. They take bath.

They stay the night. They're there all day. They don't even know how long they're. They're listening to Tom tell stories. And finally Frodo says, who are you? So Tom replies, reading from chapter seven of fellowship of the ring quote, don't you know my name yet? I'm going to end the quote and talk. Tom introduces himself often and and plainly and speaks in the third person.

So, he talks about himself. Tom Bombadil has yellow boots, even though it's Tom Bombadil speaking. So when so he says, don't you know my name? I'm going to start this whole quote over and I'll try not to interrupt myself. Quote. Don't you know my name yet? That's the answer. Tell me, who are you? Alone, yourself and nameless.

But you are young, and I am old. Eldest. That's what I am. Mark my words, my friends. Tom was here before the river and the trees. Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the big people capitalized. Be big and people and saw the little people arriving. He was here before the capital Kings and the graves and the burrow waits.

When the elves passed westward. Tom was here already before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless. Before the dark Lord came from outside. Close quote I promised to try to be brief, and I feel myself failing at this because of how interesting some of these words are. Not in some obscure text, but right there in The Fellowship of the ring, in Tom's own words, meaning in Tolkien's own words, there's some things that stand out.

Two things that I want to highlight. That passage was published in 1954, and yet we can see right into the mind of J.R.R. Tolkien that he knew a lot about the history of middle earth, the continent in the world of Arda, before the seas were bent, it says, is a clear reference to when a boat could sail from middle earth to Valinor or Valinor, or to middle earth.

That's how, Gandalf arrived for example, on a boat. Or the they could sell to the other way. You could sell from middle earth to Valinor, the home of the gods. But because of the rebellion of men that was removed and the world was made round with Valinor removed. No. No more access to the home of, you know, the equivalent of the gods was removed.

And that's why Frodo needed high elves to bear him out of middle earth to reach the shores of Valinor, to heal after being a ring bearer. And it's also why nobody could follow, including, you know, should he who tried. Sam could not row his boat and follow house required even more interesting to me at least. Although not unique to me.

This isn't the only place to find this idea, but in the same quote Tom says, quoting again in bold, you can bold this quote in your brain. He knew the dark Tom speaking third person about he he knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless before the dark Lord came from outside. Close quote Thomas there in middle earth before not Sauron, well also before Sauron, but before Sauron's baddie daddy Melkor, also named Morgoth.

Tolkien loves to name people. Lots of things came from where the demi gods lived to middle earth. Before that, middle earth was in darkness. It was. There was light, but it was, no son, no moon. And there was, two trees that far away in Valinor. It was so. It was dark, but the dark wasn't scary where it wasn't, fearful until the dark Lord came from the outside.
 
So Melkor arrived, bringing fear with him to me. That's incredibly cool. And it's clear that Tolkien knew this history and dropped those hints very intensely. Maybe without a lot of hope that he would be able to fulfill what those things alluded to for readers. Let's make, a clear distinction here about things inside middle earth and things outside middle earth, meaning in our world and in the world where you're listening to this podcast, let's say that I, Larry D Curtis, saved up two grant and I went down to the local tattoo shop.

Any number can be any number, but I saved up a bunch of money and I went to the local tattoo shop and I paid for a giant depiction of the One Ring and it's, you know, colored, shaded, it's detailed. Maybe there's an active volcano behind this, depiction of the One Ring. Or maybe there's a great flaming eye in the middle of this wandering with its detailed inscription.

You know, it's really all nice and beautiful and big and it's on my back. So, actually, and if anybody wants to fund that, or if a tattoo artist wants some publicity, that would make a great couple of episodes of the token podcast getting, a big token tattoo. I actually would get a middle earth sword tattooed on my back.

Like, for real? In honor of my youngest son. But for the sake of the point I'm making, let's say, Larry, me, I don't want to talk like Tom. Let's say I got a giant ring on my back or my chest. Let's say that, I did that and here in the real world, and if anybody saw me say at the local swimming pool or, I don't know, I don't really.

Wherever you take off is shirtless, has a swimming pool, and I have this giant ring tattooed on my body. They might say, oh, that's cool. Or they might say, well, that's in terrible taste. Or they might say, I'm I'm weird. Or they might say, I better get my six pack abs back before I go taking my shirt off in public.

I would think that and say that. But if we moved me, Larry, inside middle earth and I had that same tattoo and I met say some else, Lord glory symbol. I don't know where some wizard or even some hobbit. And I had that same tattoo. I now have a giant symbol of evil inked on my body, which would be more like in our world of fatter like a tattoo of Jesus hanging upside down on a cross, on an upside down cross or a pentagram, with the skull of a goat inside.

I'm talking big on my chest or my back, or this is good. Or if it was a black swastika on a red field. Like, it's a whole different level of symbolism because of where it is. Right? So the point is, the ring in our world, in Podcast world is a piece of Tolkien's fiction. It's like having Darth Vader on a t shirt.

You know, like that you'd send your kid to school in. Darth Vader is evil. But but it's a story. It's about Star Wars. But the One Ring in middle earth is is different. It's a genuine tool that almost led to the ruin of everything. So having a tattoo of that would mark me as like at the very least, a cultist, maybe a worshiper of Sauron.

I am talking to use symbols like that a lot, like the the tree of the Kings or, the White Hand of Saruman. So symbols would matter. And if I had that tattoo symbol, it would really be something. So when we talk about Tom Bombadil differentiating between those two places, we can talk about him on two different levels one inside middle earth, which is really just us imagining ourselves inside J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination, which, you know, what?

So when we say, what was Tom Bombadil? That's a different question. Then there. Nobody knows. You know anything about who J.R.R. Tolkien is? And, you know, good luck explaining inside middle earth to say king. King, say it in and saying, hey, actually, you were invented by some guy outside of this reality. And it was his decision that Psalm wants to cloud your mind and have your white wizard, though.

Have the white wizard control Rohan. Right? So King said, and would never understand that because he's living in middle earth. On the other hand, in the world we live in, the one with this podcast, we can also ask what was Tom Bombadil? And to answer the question here, we can then examine the life of Tolkien and the things he wrote and his children and their toys and his religious background and where he lived and his love of language, even like, you know, his literary and mythic inspirations, which, as I'm watching the clock, I know we're not going to get to in this episode.

So we are going to discuss both the inside and outside. The gaming crowd wants to know inside. Arda, what is Tom? Why can he handle the One Ring with no temptation or why to, you know, to use it or to control it? Why, when Frodo lets him examine it, can he put it on and he doesn't disappear?

And in fact, why can he literally make the ring turn invisible if he chooses? Well, the answer is, you know, actually incredibly simple and Tom told us in what we just read. Quote, eldest, that's what I am and quote. And that doesn't mean he is God. But we will look at that very specifically in a few minutes to then he details exactly how old he is.

He witnessed the first raindrop and he witnessed the first acorn. He is older by far than the One Ring, older than Sauron, turning bad, older than the trees. He has observed all of this without taking part in any of it. So that's it. Inside middle earth. That's the answer. That isn't what gamers want. But that's it. He's an intelligence or being that is older than all those things.

And wasn't part of that creation. He appears nowhere in The Silmarillion, Tolkien's creation story. He simply is. He is Tom Bombadil, and he elaborates, saying clearly he is the eldest. After Tom assists the hobbits and gets them on their way to Brie with ponies and supplies and little daggers, they're actually daggers, not little daggers. Elven made daggers. Tom is mentioned again at the Council of Elrond by Gandalf and Elrond.

So you know, the wise beings of middle earth are aware of Tom, that in return of the King, Gandalf says he's going to have a long chat with Tom. We don't see the chat. We never meet Bombadil again in any work except two poems, one published before all this even started. So let's jump outside Middle-Earth. We just talked about all the things inside.

Tom just is Tom Bombadil. So let's jump outside middle earth to the place this podcast exists, where we can look at Tolkien himself and get further answers, including, I think, the one that most succinctly sums up what Tom Bombadil is. But first, we're just going to turn to the dictionary because, everyone says Enigma all the time. And maybe that's not clear to everybody what that is.

Enigma is, quote, a person thing or situation that is mysterious and difficult to understand. Close quote. So to talk in here in podcast world where we can, go visit his tombstone if we want to. Tom was meant to be intentionally made by his creator, an enigma, a person, thing, or situation that is mysterious and difficult to understand.

From the pen of J.R.R. Tolkien himself in the collection of his letters, Numbered Letter 144, written in April 1954, Tolkien says, quote, even in a mythical age, there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one intentionally close quote if you're not 100% clear, right, you probably can catch on. There was just a letter from talking, but, a lot of his correspondence sent in, some unsent, has been collected into the letters of token.

And a lot of those letters were to people who were writing, asking questions about Middle-Earth, some of the friends who were asking questions about Middle-Earth. But there's quite a lot of insight from the author himself. And, you know, sometimes a creator, a person who makes it creative work, has time to kind of think about it more. And some of those answers were probably always there, and some kind of happened, as Tolkien was asked these questions.

So letter one 44th April 1954. Tolkien says that Bombadil is intentionally an enigma in a letter to Neville Cargill, who happens to have been a member of the inklings with Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. If you're not familiar with the inklings, Google it and you can Google Cargill while you're at it. We're not going to touch it, but he's an interesting guy.

Tom but this is a quote again, Tolkien writing to Cargill quote. But Tom Bombadil is just as he is, just an odd fact of that world. He won't be explained, because as long as you as you were meant to be, as long as you are as you were meant to be concentrated on the ring. He is inexplicable, but he's there, a reminder of the truth, as I see it, that the world is so large and manifold that if you take one, facet and fix your mind and heart on it, there is always something that does not come into that story.

Close quote Cargill, incidentally, is a professor of English literature at Oxford from 57 to 66. And yes, I definitely had to look that up. I had to, I wouldn't know, but, worth knowing. He, you know, Tolkien hung out with some smart people, including C.S. Lewis. So, letter one 53rd September 1954. Quote I don't think Tom needs philosophizing about and is not improved by it, but many have found him an odd or indeed discordant highlight that word discordant.

What that would mean in your mind odd or indeed discordant ingredient in historical fact. I put him in because I had already invented him independently. He first appeared in the Oxford Magazine and wanted an adventure on the way. I remember this quote from Tolkien. Tom was included in middle earth quote because I had already invented him independently. Close quote.

So Tolkien himself delivered the important info there, as clear as can be that the character Tom Bombadil was published in the magazine, The Oxford Magazine in 1930, four years before The Hobbit was published. Although it had been started being written in 1930. It's a quick, easy reading poem. If he cared to seek it out, I. I'd thought maybe I would read it here, but this is not a short episode, so I'm not going to,

But it's easy to find and worth reading. Really easy to read and easy to understand, even amusing. So we've established that inside middle earth. Tom said he was the eldest, already created before middle earth was. Tom calls himself the eldest, but also glorious, and calls him the first. And Tom's Elvish name means oldest and fatherless, which I think fits perfectly as we've hear in the podcast world where we know who Tolkien is.

We see that Tom was already created and the eldest, and he was around when token was creating the first acorn. Now, speaking of the outside world, out of middle earth, we live in a time when J.R.R. Tolkien is celebrated, as you know, a celebrated literary say you're not just a guy who wrote a book, and there are lots of creative works made around talking in 2023.

In the UK, a 2 pound and I mean the the monetary value of pounds, not the weight pounds. A 2 pound coin was minted to commemorate the life of J.R.R. Tolkien, who died 50 years before that in 1973. Kelly and Aecom Kelly, Annie and I become the first sponsor of the token podcast that you're listening to. A crafts woman creates and sells handmade jewelry that she makes from coins from around the world.

She's created a token necklace using that beautiful 2023 UK issued 2 pound coin, so you can wear your token phantom around your neck in beautiful jewelry or, oh. Excuse me. If you know someone who loves token, you can give an amazing piece of jewelry to your favorite token fan kind of thing that makes that unique, unmatched gift that nobody else gives nobody else thought of.

It comes with a, a 20 inch matte gold fill chain. I've seen this in person, and maybe I'll get a picture, but I'll definitely get a link and a lobster claw clasp. Visible is the token monogram that maybe lots of people know. I think it's pretty well known these days. This particular one created by artist David Lawrence.

The link will be up so you can support the token podcast with this custom made jewelry. And it comes with a token quote. Now these are custom made. So they do sell out, but really big thanks to Kelly and Aecom. If you go there and you look under, Great Britain, you'll see that in the in the list.

But I will put the link so you'll be able to find it easily. If, you listen to the token podcast episode, there's an earlier episode about what order to read tokens works. And there are those who claim I would. I've said this, that I'll say it now, that the order of publication is the best way to read, and that would mean the 1934 poem The Adventures of Tom Bombadil would be the first thing that you read, which I'm not reading here, but super easy you should.

You probably can find online, but definitely it's published. It's available. I will say what I wish I could get my hands on as a copy of that. The Oxford Review. I can't even remember what it's called now. You know, nervous Oxford Magazine. There's several good library collections of tokens, papers. Marquette has probably the best. Oxford, has some great ones.

But this 1934 publication with the poem is somewhere else that I can't remember. It doesn't matter. At the time that it was published, Tolkien had no idea what the story of the Lord of the rings was at all, and Tom was deliberately not placed in The Hobbit. So review Tom Bell's out his houseguests, the hobbits, when they fall into the clutches of a bear.

White. That same creature is in the original Tom Bombadil poem, and Tom sings him out of his house. Let me read the words. When Tom intervenes to save the hobbits from this certain undead doom, reading it to give you a flavor of Tom quote, old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.

None has ever caught him yet. For Tom, he is the master. His songs are stronger songs and his feet are faster. That's the tone Tom Bombadil uses when he's chasing off or singing off, a borrowed white, a deadly undead creature, that would absolutely master the hobbits in moments if not for Tom. But besides singing jolly songs all the time and dressing in bright colors, putting feathers in this hat, we intentionally, by the creator don't know much about him.

I mentioned before they he comes up at the Council of Elrond. A Gandalf says if he was given the One Ring, he wouldn't care about it and would probably just misplace it. And Elrond says that if Bombadil were forced to confront Sauron, Tom would be overpowered. Talking now, now out of out of middle earth in Tolkien, said Tom was, quote, not an important person to the narrative.
 
End quote, even though, quote, he represents handled that badly, he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyze the feeling precisely. Close quote. And by the way, Jackson and Bakshi were all exactly correct. They made the right decision to exclude Tom's from the movie adaptations. While awesome in a book, Tom story is a big pause in the goal of our protagonist, and he would bog down the film.
 
And I know fans clamor for him, but it is the right decision for a movie. Tolkien scholar Verlon Fleischer said that Tom is entirely free of the desire to dominate, and hence cannot be dominated by my words. Tom doesn't care about the things of the world, middle earth, so the things of the world don't have power over him.
 
He is completely removed from them. His joy in certain things and their discovery like botany and science. But he has no desire to manipulate, which makes him actually the absolute counterpoint to Sauron. Tolkien said in a letter to his publisher that Tom was Tom was, quote, spirit of the vanishing Oxford and Berkshire countryside. So inside middle earth, Tom is an intentional mystery, specifically a designed enigma.
 
Outside of middle earth. Tom is a creation of Tolkien's that predated middle earth completely, that the guy who made him called inexplicable and was used to show a wider world with questions that can't be answered, highlighting that the story of The War of the ring is not the whole of everything. In 1937, The Hobbit was published as readers, and the publisher of The Hobbit later demanded a sequel, Christopher Tolkien, The Greatest Tolkien Scholar in the world, noted that his father's early notes about the sequel in those notes, Tom was present and this is feeling like shoehorned in, but it can't be left unsaid.
 
Speaking of Christopher and Tolkien's children, they all played when they were, young with a Dutch doll, which would be, you know, for boys like the equivalent of an action figure in today's terms, imaginative play. And it was called Tom Bombadil. It was a toy, a figure of the token family. Fancy. One time, it was attempted to be flushed down the toilet, but was rescued.
 
So now, in more current events, definitely in this century at least, or old Tom Bombadil made an appearance in a big budget TV series. Amazon famously paid $250 million just for the rights to develop a series based on the Lord of the rings, which means, in practical terms, that the content from the things between the front cover of the book and the back cover of the book, which includes the appendices in the back of the book, where there is a lot of material to be mined.
 
Now, some of you, some listeners probably love this series, and if you do, I'm delighted that you do. I don't want to dissuade anyone from experiencing joy and in really appreciating, your creative work, TV show, movie, book, painting, photograph, whatever. However, I am not among those who love the series and in all honesty, my enthusiasm was low enough.
 
I think I just mispronounced enthusiasm. My enthusiasm was low enough after season one that I never got around to watching season two at all. I have an Amazon account. I always thought I would get around to it, but I never got around to it. I'm a journalist by trade and I've watched, as film journalism has turned into film promotion, in publications, even in publications like that are well known for film journalism.
 
When Esquire or Empire or GQ or, I don't know, other high profile publications do profiles on movies or big budget television, complete with exclusive photos and high level interviews. They sell a lot of copies, and we, the consumers, are reading promotional material that comes disguised to us as excuse the first looks quote marks around that. HBO did this on air like for for decades.
 
They would have, you know, HBO exclusive first looks. Well, it would just have video of, you know, somebody behind the scenes being like, whoa, this movie's really cool, man. It's pretty much the same. These journalists are there on set and doing, you know, kind of promotional content that isn't a hatred for the form. I'm not. I'm not like, even I'm not saying any of that to be negative.
 
I'm just that's what it is. That's just me being honest about what that is. Advanced information and set access are given or exchanged, and photos are given in exchange to a reporter who benefits from the exclusive, as does their publication on the show. Or the movie then gets high profile press, which is really valuable and really important. And let's be honest, it's always positive press, or at worst it's kind of neutral.
 
You're not ever reading these pieces about movies or TV shows that say, this show is doomed. It's just doesn't happen. Nerds. We nerds. I'm saying we are big business at the box office. And so, and streaming services and so they, they studios caught us last September. The Hollywood Reporter pretty prestigious mainstream press covers Hollywood. Pretty important publication did a preview of Rings of Power Season two by focusing on a really tease worthy, attention grabbing concept.
 
This Tom Bombadil gets on screen. Finally, the actual headline said The Rings of Power creators on making Tom Bombadil cool quotes I get chills when he says that in quotes with a picture of Rory Kinnear as Tom. Subhead showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay talk about bringing the tricky to adapt character to life and striking a balance between J.R.R. Tolkien's creation and their grounded depiction.
 
We have arrived at the opinion portion of this episode. I do not, by the way, see this podcast focused on reviews now or in the future. I guess it could evolve into that, but that's not the intention. There are Lord of the rings fans out there who just want the name Tolkien or Middle Earth stamped on a product, and they will consume it.
 
And that would include, I don't know, excuse me, middle earth Oreos marked now with extra limbus or something, and they would get in line to buy them and that's totally fine. They're welcome to spend their money however they want, if that makes them happy, that's great. Now, personally, I want my middle earth content to be excellent every time, all the time.
 
It isn't always. I know it isn't always going to be, but that's what I'm looking for. The standard for middle earth stuff ought to be pretty high. Almost always. When it isn't, it's because the creators didn't trust token, and when it is, it's usually because the creators did trust token. And that is not to say that adaptations are not required for different mediums.
 
I don't believe that at all. But there is a reason tokens works remain popular for nearly 90 years now, so I think it behooves the creatives to understand why token is successful, or why a certain story works, or a character works and and is still popular. And then to do their best to translate that to film or TV.
 
But I'm not sure that's happening. I think what's often being asked about productions fantasy or tokens specifically is why was Jackson's Lord of the rings movies so popular? And then attempts are made to do what Jackson did, and I see that a lot visually and, in other ways. That's not great. Trust token. I mean, my opinion, right.
 
But I also don't see the value in running down what other people love. So if they get joy from TV, great. It's not my job. It's not my wish to tell them they shouldn't enjoy something. But at the same time, it's also not my job or my wish to swallow my observations. And it might actually be my job.
 
It's not officially my job, but what I think I should do is to tell people that are in the business of adapting token to strive for greatness, not to strive for financial greatness. So if you if if you love the show, if you love ring Lord of the Rings Rings of Power, keep loving the show. Please, I support you, but it's homework.
 
For this podcast episode, I took it upon myself to go watch Rings of Power Season two, or at least the parts with Tom Bombadil in it. That character, that same character from that obscure 1934 poem that we've been talking about. There's probably some minor spoilers ahead for Lord of the Rings Rings of Power Season two. But I didn't watch enough of it.
 
I don't think to have there be major spoilers, but I did watch this Bombadil scene, so if you don't want to know about them, don't listen. Let's be clear if Tom Bombadil is one thing in his poems and in the Lord of the rings, in his own words, he's one thing. He is a merry fellow. He doesn't care about the ring.
 
He doesn't care about the affairs around him. He is pre, raindrop and prior acorn and prima cor. So he's a merry fellow. Underlined exclamation point. I thought Kinnear, a really good actor that I really admire, a great actor that I admire, suited or suited to the role. Like that. Like it's fit him well. It's a good pick. And, if I had a movie, I'd want him to be in it.
 
I had not watched as I said, any of season two previously, but I settled in to watch the parts of in a couple of episodes, and while doing that, I cut other parts. So I strangely had a powerful sensation that I was watching season one plot points that were still not resolved in season two, which felt weird and frustrating.
 
And on that particular point, I was just dumbfounded that that's what season two was doing, that I was still. Tom is seen on screen first in almost what I would call a wasteland. Maybe they wouldn't, but that's what I would say. And as far as I can tell, the only reason he's there is for fan service, seemingly almost entirely.
 
What's the point of creating hype for the show? Finds Gandalf. Oh wait, I mean the stranger. He finds one. He finds the stranger wandering around looking for a staff so he can be a proper wizard. Meanwhile, the stranger is protecting two halflings who haven't, like, I don't know. I don't mean to be rude, I just don't love some of the design choices, but they seem to have not come to their hair since season one.
 
And I like the actresses, and I've liked those characters in season one, but they're still hanging around doing the same thing. Without combing their hair or seemingly taking the leaves out of them or whatever. And naturally, the stranger is quite fond of these two halflings because nudge nudge, audience wink wink, audience. Later, a wizard, possibly Gandalf, will be fond of halfling.
 
Then the the. You know, listen, I'm not trying to be rude, but the shockingly incarnate stranger. I'm still like really? Like from season one. This guy's still like that. He accidentally gets himself half swallowed by a tree because wink again, nudge again later. Some hobbits, specifically Mary and Pippin, will also get swallowed by a tree in both instances.
 
A bearded fellow. This one, I think I heard muttering under his breath. Mary Doll tells the tree to drink deep, and I think I heard that too, but I don't know. It didn't make sense. And rewind it and write it down. But that's what I thought I heard. And the tree in both instances, when Tom sings to it or talks to it, let's the poor fools that are inside it go.
 
This tree isn't a willow, thankfully. I'm grateful for that. So more winks and nudges and this super enigmatic fellow takes, the stranger to his house to give him a bath because Tom Bombadil loves to give guests baths, I guess, and the bewildered stranger just completely, like, stomped in this tub. Who is? I will remind you, one of the wisest and most powerful beings and in fact, helped sing Middle earth to life.
 
He sits completely befuddled in this tub. At least he seems befuddled to me and confused. And he asks Tom who Tom is now. Tom answers with words that will probably be familiar if you've listened to this whole episode of this podcast, but he says, eldest, that's what I am. Or something very similar to it. It's the same speech, and I know, I mean, it's forgivable because his reply to Frodo and his own house is thousands of years old, an age later never made it on screen.
 
But really, like, is he rehearsing or is Tom Bombadil rehearsing his speech? Peter Jackson's team famous lifted dialog from parts of the book and dropped it in other parts of the Lord of the rings film. So I'm not against that practice, but that's pretty much what happened here. And goodness gracious, it felt so clumsy to me to have him.
 
I don't know the keys because we know Frodo is going to come later and he's going to say the same thing because we read the book because that's how we know about Bombadil. Otherwise we wouldn't even be excited about Bombadil. But anyway, praise to Rory Kinnear, who was just really good at reading those lines, which seemed painfully out of place.
 
So the eldest is also like the most repetitive, I guess. I don't know, but it's forgivable. I get why they did it, but you know, Tom's kind of iconic speech needs to be in there somewhere. I guess what I found less forgivable than that, though, was the gamut. Damn it. The stranger then falls into conversation with Bombadil, and at a later point, I think even in the next episode about how he feels powerless or is disheartened or something, his quest for a staff isn't going very well, so the very serious Tom Bombadil hands him a platitude about wizards death and wizards heart, which I okay, but in the scene, the writing team takes Gandalf's words,
 
and I definitely mean Gandalf. This time. Gandalf's words to Frodo in the minds of Moria from Peter Jackson's movies. Now, Jackson borrowed those same words from chapter two of fellowship of the ring and moved them from Lake Bilbo's house to Moria to the Moria sequence, and to great effect, like, pro that like, well done. Now we have Bombadil saying, the same words to these, like bewildered, but also the wisest and among the most powerful beings in Arda and says many who live deserve death and some that die deserve life.
 
Who are you to give it to them? So slightly changed? Well, not only if we punched holes or punched the character of Gandalf in the face by later. Now we've made it so Gandalf quoting Tom virtually word for word, thousands of years later, in troubled times, this wisest of all beings seemingly doesn't have his own vocabulary to, bolster middle earth, to, you know, to make people have courage, which is all the is.
 
Therefore, he just parrots Bombadil. We find out later. So, so punches Gandalf in the face and it kind of punches. That whole scene in the Jackson movies in the face, or, if you prefer, it punches the scene in the book in the face. It it like I that was a really poor use of dialog and we've already heard it.
 
Either we know the book or we know Jackson's work, or we know both, and we recognize his word for word thing. And I, I don't know, fans, if you think that's really cute, I don't I don't think that's cute at all. There just was not a moment where I was, you know, tickled at my TV screen because I heard identical dialog in different like ages of middle earth.
 
But not only have we punched Gandalf by making him quote Tom word for it. Thousands of years later, we've done something radically different. Radically different with Tom here. Tom is never presented as wise or a counselor by token. In fact, he's most definitely a merry fellow who doesn't care at all about the things of the world. He's so careless.
 
Well, greetings and welcome to the Tolkien Podcast. I am your host, Larry D Curtis, a long time talking reader and a journalist who has covered talking related content for 25 years now. Today's episode, The Sixth, is all about the enigmatic Tom Bombadil. I will try to get right to the point with Tom, and I'm also likely to cause some controversy with this episode, with some strong opinions about him in adaptations of Tolkien's works.
 
I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, the place that just managed to lose the Sundance Film Festival, but I have traveled around the of the United States to Oceana and to Europe to give presentations on talking, often for a fan website. I was also invited to be an embedded journalist on the set of The Hobbit films. Well, not only was I invited, I went.
 
I was an embedded journalist on the set of The Hobbit films. I don't typically talk about my credentials, especially off the top, but we are finding a new and growing audience with each episode, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to take a moment to revisit who is behind the voice here. The hope is that this episode will be shorter than the others for various reasons, but I do seem to get carried away when discussing the works of Tolkien, because I find it so interesting.
 
I hope you find it interesting too. And by the way, thanks for growing the show. Each episode takes time and attention, probably more than it should. I'm sure there's professional and great podcasters who who whip through these things, but that is not me. So I try to fit it in with the rest of my passions in my life and my creative works that I, you know, want to make.
 
And, and I'm trying to also feed myself and pay the rent. So all I hope is that somebody, somewhere wants to take the time and listen when I invest the time to make these podcasts. By the way, you can contact the show via email. That email is the talking podcast@gmail.com. You can complain. You can say thanks.
 
You can suggest things to talk about in the future. You can disagree, but I just would love to hear from you. This episode has a sponsor, which is a first and it's genuine, unique, and I will even say a special handmade token related item. I'll be giving out a website and some details later, and I suspect the least you'll want to write down and, look up an exceptional piece of jewelry.
 
It's funny to me that we write things down and we look things up, but that's English. That's what we do. Anyway, let's get on with the show. For those who may not know or may not remember clearly in the Lord of the rings books, I'm talking about books. Frodo and his hobbit friends flee the Shire, and they make a series of stops on their way to bring and discuss the One Ring at the Council of Elrond.
 
It's a series of scary things, broken up by stops in safety. They call Elrond's house the last homely house. Well, there's other homely houses before that, so they find safety. They also find help unexpected help more than once. In fact, several times in one of those stops, after Mary and Pippin fall asleep and get partially captured or consumed or eaten by a mean old willow tree.
 
Sam and Frodo yell for help, and the topic of the episode, Tom Bombadil, shows up and, using the power of his song and his voice, sets the wee lads free. Meaning Mary, and Tom takes them to his house, his safe house, his homely house, you might say, near the old forest for some rest and some reprieve. A reprieve, I believe, is how we say that.
 
And some rest. So they stay safely in Tom's house? They hear a bunch of stories. We're going to get some quotes, then they leave, and then they need further rescue, and they fall victim to a burrow. White, a scary undead creature with a treasure hoard. They sing a verse that Tom taught them, and once again, Bombadil shows up and sings The Danger Away.
 
He also makes gifts out of some of the treasure, which means each of the hobbits leave, the harrowing adventure with an ancient elven dagger. Tom sends him on to Bree. Now, if your exposure to middle earth is only through the Peter Jackson films and there are lots of people like that, you don't know who Tom Bombadil is.
 
Likewise, if you listen to the BBC radio play, there is no Bombadil further. If you are old enough or dedicated enough to have sought out the 1970s Ralph Bakshi animated Lord of the rings film No Bombadil, and by the way, I recommend both of all of those adaptations if you haven't tried them, especially now if you've watched season two of the Amazon Lord of the rings ring, it's rings, right?
 
Rings of power series. There was some Bombadil, and I'll have a hot take about that shortly, but let's get the Bombadil basics covered first. Tom saves the hobbits aforementioned tree and then hosts them and sings the story of the of and tells them the story of the world. I think they sing to, and Frodo asks him who he is.
 
Now Tom often speaks in the third person and names himself. He'll say things about himself. So he says to Frodo, and I think we should pay really careful attention to Tom here. He he says, remember, this guy names himself often. He says, quote, don't you know my name yet? That's the only answer. Yet people are always asking, who is Tom Bombadil?
 
Well, that's already an answer. He is Tom Bombadil. If I meet somebody and they say, who are you? I answer, I am Larry. That's the answer. So when fans ask who is Tom? But sometimes, by the way, when I say I'm Larry Ellison, what's your last name? Well, I'm Larry Curtis. Tom's giving them both names right away.
 
So when fans ask who is Tom Bombadil, they really know who he is. They just answer their own question. I think what they really mean is, what is Tom Bombadil? And if you pay careful attention, you hear someone ask that and there's a discussion. Or you can find it in online forums, probably forever. What follows the question, who is Tom Bombadil?
 
Most of it actually focuses on what is Tom Bombadil? Is he one of the demigods that created middle earth? Is he a powerful being like Gandalf or Sauron or Saruman? Is he something else, like the Eagles that seem to be something else? Or like a Goliath who seems to be something else? Again, just repeating. Tom says, don't you know my name yet?
 
That's the only answer. Knowing the Lord of the rings, the free peoples and the other inhabitants of middle earth are clearly divided into groups. There's hobbits, no elves and men and wizards and orcs. Well, and and goblins and dwarves and Gondor, eons and Easter lings. And everybody seems to have a classification. This, kind of oversimplification about people and how how we work in tribes, has been much copied in Dungeons and Dragons and other places.
 
Putting fantasy readers, probably you if you ever Tolkien interests probably me if I have a talking interest. It puts fantasy readers or or fantasy, fans, we should say even more into the mindset that everybody we meet in the fantasy world has a classification. It's too bad we can't hire like in the real world. We can't find a level one plumber, that we don't have to pay very much to get a new, like, showerhead and then a level ten plumber to fix our sewer leak.
 
But things aren't that simple. That's really not how it works in the real world. So, the classifications aren't so neat. Now, when The Silmarillion. So Tolkien published the Lord of the rings in 1954 or 1955, I think I say that every episode. But it's important, I think, to have context. So, decades later, when The Silmarillion was published in 1977, we fantasy readers, I say we, I, I was alive, but certainly not a reader.
 
And I certainly wasn't looking forward to Silmarillion. But, meaning we the greater nerd community, I guess the greater Tolkien community. In 1977, when when The Silmarillion was published, suddenly there was a full array of possible classifications of other beings in Arda who, more closely aligned with the possibilities of Tom Bombadil, including the creators of Arda. Readers talk.
 
Knights also learned who the elves really were, and how we got them, how they came to middle earth, and who the dwarves really were and who was responsible for them, which plays into this very episode. If we get to it. But I have a feeling we're not going to. So more than ever, readers wondered, what is Tom? Since that time games, D&D included, will create rules and classifications to fit characters in.
 
In that world, Dungeon Masters will invent like constraints or rules to govern everything and everybody because they have to have, you know, hit points or damage or their or their songs.