+- Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum (https://www.scivillage.com)
+-- Forum: Culture (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-49.html)
+--- Forum: Style & Fashion (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-132.html)
+--- Thread: The five great Tom Bombadil theories (Tolkien style) (/thread-20066.html)
The five great Tom Bombadil theories (Tolkien style) - C C - Mar 27, 2026
Other analysis: Bombadil is omitted from Peter Jackson's interpretation of The Lord of the Rings. Jackson explained that this was because he and his co-writers felt that the character does little to advance the story, and including him would make the film unnecessarily long.
[...] The scholar of folklore David Elton Gay ... suggests ... that Tom Bombadil was directly modelled on the Kalevala's central character, the demigod Väinämöinen.
[...] The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger writes that if there was an opposite to Sauron in The Lord of the Rings, it would ... be Tom Bombadil, the earthly Master who is entirely free of the desire to dominate, and hence cannot be dominated.
[...] Jane Beal ... writes that Bombadil can be considered using "the four levels of meaning found in medieval scriptural exegesis and literary interpretation"...
[...] The psychologist Timothy R. O'Neill interpreted Bombadil from a Jungian perspective ... O'Neill finds Bombadil to be the manifestation of the Self archetype and a vision of man's beginning and destiny...
[...] Robert Foster, author of an early guide to Middle-earth, suggested in 1978 that Bombadil is one of the Maiar, angelic beings sent from Valinor.
The Tolkien scholar and philosopher Gene Hargrove argued ... that Tolkien understood who Bombadil is, but purposefully made him enigmatic. Hargrove suggested that Tolkien left clues that Bombadil is one of the Valar, a god of Middle-earth, specifically Aulë, the archangelic demigod who created the dwarves.
Five great theories of Tom Bombadil ... https://youtu.be/mw9uKzy4GRs
RE: The five great Tom Bombadil theories (Tolkien style) - Magical Realist - Mar 27, 2026
I was quite enchanted with the character Tom Bombadil when I read the LOTR, disappointed when he was left out of the films. He seemed to me a figure of good opposite to and maybe even equal to Sauron himself. He seemed to embody the Earth spirit in all of its wisdom and magic. That he only had a passing role in the story just made me want more of him. He does play an important part in the Rings of Power as the one who gives Gandalf his staff and makes him realize his wizardly destiny. It makes sense that he is an incarnation of one of the Valar.