Editing Goldberry (section)

=== Gender role ===

{{Quote box
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 |quote=Goldberry, with the smooth and kind way she relates to her odd husband Tom Bombadil and through her elegance, accomplishment, and connection to the natural world, brings much needed peace to Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''. She seeks nothing, longs for nothing, yet appreciates and nurtures everything and everyone around her. <br/>
 —  Katherine Hasser, ''[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment]]''<ref name="Hesser 2013"/>
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In the ''[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]]'', Katherine Hasser observed that Goldberry appeared to the hobbits in the diverse roles of "goddess, nurturer, and manager of domestic responsibilities". With regards to her initial appearance, Hasser said Tolkien's description evokes a "[[Sandro Botticelli|Botticelli]]-like image of a woman embodied and surrounded by the natural characteristics of her environment", and her clothing reflects her peaceful, symbiotic connection with the natural world.<ref name="Hesser 2013"/> 

Goldberry is sometimes discussed in critical commentary about [[Women in The Lord of the Rings|the roles of women in ''The Lord of the Rings'']]. She is presented as a hospitable domestic figure,<ref name="Basso 2008"/> a good hostess who feeds passing travellers.<ref name="Hesser 2013"/> While the scholar of children's literature Melissa McCrory Hatcher called her "a mystical washer-woman",<ref name="Hatcher 2007">{{cite journal |last=Hatcher |first=Melissa McCrory |year=2007 |title=Finding Woman's Role in The Lord of the Rings |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=25 |issue=3 |at=article 5 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol25/iss3/5}}</ref> Hasser emphasized that the most significant point about Goldberry as a feminine figure is that she shares a cooperative and reciprocal domestic relationship with Bombadil, with a dynamic of equality that is not seen in other romantic pairings in Tolkien's body of work as the other [[Middle-earth peoples]] often have a clearer separation of gender roles within their societies.<ref name="Hesser 2013"/> Hasser noted that Goldberry is the sole female character in ''The Lord of the Rings'' who does not have a personal agenda, and that she provides a feminine figure who is "pure, content, significant to the world around her, and wise" in its narrative.<ref name="Hesser 2013">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Hesser |first=Katherine |chapter=Goldberry |editor=Michael D. C. Drout |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2006 |location=Abingdon |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-1358-8033-0 |pages=245–246}}</ref>