Tom Bombadil [merged]

Pfft he can build himself another boat and sail away!!!!!!! He is a shipwright after all.

heheee yes but try to built a boat all alone when men burnt down all trees and so on... poor, poor Círdan 🙁

let me finish kit 😛

and the last ship which he missed took all the materials instead of leaving them 😄

Go to Fangorn, risk death and take those trees.

risk being molested by ents i dont think so 😛

*shrugs* We wouldn't kow Cirdan would be desperate, he could just go to Minas Tirith to live with Arwen until she dies.

lol ok well that sort of steered of track

Yes, we have the talent to do that.

i want some!

I have reason to believe that Tom Bombadil is the With King of Angmar because:..................................

1. We never hear of Tom at all during the whole of the First Age. The Nine Rings aren't forged until the Second Age.

2. You never see the two of them together.

3. In the first part of Fellowship of the Ring, the Nazgul are sent to the Shire to look for the wandering Baggins. Interestingly, Tom says to Frodo at the dinner-table: "...I was waiting for you. We heard news of you, and learned that you were wandering... But Tom had an errand there, that he dared not hinder"

4. In Tom's questioning of the Hobbits, JRRT notes that "there was a glint in his eyes when he heard of the Riders." (Fellowship p. 144) I think he was concerned that his double-life might have been noticed. Interestingly, Tom immediately changes the subject of conversation!
Furthermore, the One Ring had no effect on Tom - which seems consistent with Tolkien's observations about how the Nazgul would have handled the same priceless object (Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, #246): "They were... in no way deceived as to the real lordship of the Ring."

5. It's also interesting to note that Tom could see Frodo clearly while Frodo was wearing the Ring (Fellowship p. 144 hardback) - just as the Witch-king could see Frodo clearly while he was wearing the Ring at Weathertop!

Being the 2nd part of my theory........................................

6. Perhaps most damning, however, is the incident with the Barrow-wights (Fellowship pp. 151-155), where Tom - with nothing more than a few simple words (p. 154) - commands the Barrow-wight to leave. And it does, without argument. Why would the Wight be so completely under Tom's control? Because in his alternate guise as the Witch-king of Angmar, Tom ordered the Wight to inhabit the barrow in the first place! Turning to Return of the King, Appendix A, p. 321, "evil spirits out of Angmar... entered into the deserted mounds and dwelt there." Obviously the Witch-king was reponsible for sending the wights there; just as obviously, the Witch-king (disguised as Tom) would be capable of ordering them to leave!
(This is related to another passage, which has since been brought to my attention. On Fellowship page 158 hardback, Tom is guiding the Hobbits back towards the Road when he gazes towards the borders of Cardolan. "Tom said that it had once been the boundary of a kingdom, but a very long time ago. He seemed to remember something sad about it, and would not say much." Since Tom, as the Witch-king, was the one who destroyed the kingdom of Cardolan, it's little wonder that he wouldn't say much about his involvement. Perhaps his remembering "something sad" reveals some remorse at being the instrument of Cardolan's destruction...?)

Being the 3rd part of my Theory.................................

...It's worth noting that, after the Witch-king was dead, Gandalf said he was "going to have a long talk with Bombadil" (Return of the King, p. 275). Curiously, he never tells anyone about the meeting later... and he's right there at the Grey Havens at the end of the book, undelayed it seems by long conversation. I think we can therefore theorize that Gandalf made it to the Old Forest, but that Tom (once the so-called "Witch-king" had died) was nowhere to be found!

...Of course, all this brings up the curiosity of motive. What would make the Witch-King of Angmar sport such a double identity? I suppose that the Witch-king, once of proud Numenorean ancestry, felt trapped by the guise of evil which Sauron had tricked him into, and in the fullness of time forged this alternate identity for himself so that he could occasionally feel happy, helpful, noble, and more at one with himself and his lineage. The situation is perhaps analagous to a crossdresser who, feeling trapped in a man's body, would occasionally assume the identity of a woman. It therefore makes sense that the Witch-king's other identity would be so peculiarly enigmatic, and perhaps sheds light on JRRT's observation in Letters #144: "And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)."

...Who else would be aware of Tom's double-life, I wonder? Since Tom repeatedly claims to have been around "before the river and the trees", and indeed even claims to be older than the Ents (Fellowship p. 142), surely the eldest of the Elves would know he was lying. Elrond plays along with Tom in public, being kind enough not to reveal his secret, but also seems to know that Tom and the Witch-king are one and the same; hence his refusal to give the Ring to Tom for safekeeping (Fellowship p. 278-9): "Power to defy the Enemy is not in him."

Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading my theory. I have many more and I will share then with you. T'm sorry if you are the sensitive type, and was offended by my theory. If you were then it's nothing I can help.

Anyway, Thank you once again. Contact me if you have an opinion about my Tom Bombadil theory.

I hope that in some way you have found my theory in some way entertaining...............and who know's? You might even believe my opinion................

*Bye*

xoxBritneyxox

these threads are pointless, why dont you post it all on the same one.

I didn't post them all in the same thread because the thread box can only hold a certain amount of words.
And you may think it's pointless but I don't care about what you think.

o.......k?

whos Tom???

He's a character in the book..They left him out in the movie. By the way, Sexi Blonde, I think I already saw that same identical post about this theory, I don't mean to be straightforward but did you copy it from one of the posts in this board?

but who is he? lol

like a hobbit or man or good or bad or what

That's the point...no one knows...not even Tolkien himself clarified WHAT Tom is. He's not a Hobbit, he's not a Dwarf, nor an elf, or a Man. It's the whole point of the theory, to make up an idea and reasons what they think Tom is. All we know is that he's older than Elves, he's not tempted by the Ring, he wore it once but he didn't disappear, etc. He's very mysterious. I don't think he's a Maia or a Valar either.

He's a good err..man. He helped the Hobbits to reach Bree. 🙂