Editing Tom Bombadil (section)

== Analysis ==

=== Väinämöinen ===

[[File:Sammon puolustus.jpg|thumb|Tom Bombadil's antecedents may include the [[demigod]] [[Väinämöinen]] from the Finnish epic poem ''[[Kalevala]]''.<ref name="Gay 2004"/> Painting ''[[The Defense of the Sampo]]'' by [[Akseli Gallen-Kallela]], 1896]]

The scholar of folklore David Elton Gay writes that Tolkien was inspired by the poetry of the ''[[Kalevala]]'', [[Elias Lönnrot]]'s 1849 collection of Finland's oral tradition. Gay suggests with a detailed comparison that Tom Bombadil was directly modelled on the ''Kalevala''{{'s}} central character, the [[demigod]] [[Väinämöinen]].<ref name="Gay 2004">{{cite book |last=Gay |first=David Elton |editor-last=Chance |editor-first=Jane |editor-link=Jane Chance |chapter=J.R.R. Tolkien and the Kalevala |title=Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: a Reader |title-link=Tolkien and the Invention of Myth |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |location=Lexington, Kentucky |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8131-2301-1 |pages=295–304}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"
|+ David Elton Gay's comparison of Tom Bombadil with the demigod [[Väinämöinen]] in the 1849 ''[[Kalevala]]''<ref name="Gay 2004"/>
|-
! [[Väinämöinen]] !! Tom Bombadil
|-
| colspan=2; style="text-align: center;" | Oldest, immortal 
|-
| colspan=2; style="text-align: center;" | Lives in a small forested country that he controls but does not own
|-
| colspan=2; style="text-align: center;" | Extremely close to his world, exemplifying "naturalness"<ref name="Gay 2004"/>
|-
| colspan=2; style="text-align: center;" | Fearless, because powerful
|-
| colspan=2; style="text-align: center;" | Power through song and knowledge
|-
| colspan=2; style="text-align: center;" | Sings for the pleasure of singing
|-
| style="text-align: center;" | "Day by day he sang unwearied"
| style="text-align: center;" | [[Sound and language in Middle-earth#True names|Mostly speaks through song]]
|-
| As oldest living being, he saw creation,<br/>heard names of all beings,<br/>knows songs of their origins,<br/>helped shape the land
| "I am old, Eldest, that's what I am ...<br/>Tom was here before the river and the trees"<br/>"Tom remembers the first raindrop<br/>and the first acorn"<ref name="In the House of Tom Bombadil" group=T/>
|}

=== Sauron's opposite ===

The Tolkien scholar [[Verlyn Flieger]] writes that if there was an opposite to [[Sauron]] in ''The Lord of the Rings'', it would not be [[Aragorn]], his battlefield opponent, nor Gandalf, his spiritual enemy, but Tom Bombadil, the earthly Master who is entirely free of the desire to dominate, and hence cannot be dominated.<ref name="Flieger 2011">{{cite book |last=Flieger |first=Verlyn |author-link=Verlyn Flieger |chapter=Sometimes One Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures |editor1-last=Bogstad |editor1-first=Janice M. |editor2-last=Kaveny |editor2-first=Philip E. |title=[[Picturing Tolkien]] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNjKrXRP0G8C&pg=PA50 |year=2011 |publisher=[[McFarland (publisher)|McFarland]] |location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=978-0-7864-8473-7 |pages=50–51}}</ref> The Christian scholar<!--Houghton University, Templeton Trust--> W. Christopher Stewart sees Bombadil as embodying the pursuit of knowledge purely for its own sake, driven only by his sense of wonder. In his view, this goes some way to explaining Bombadil's indifference to the [[One Ring]], whose only purpose is power and domination.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stewart |first=W. Christopher |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/hobbitphilosophy0000unse/page/155 |chapter=The Lord of Magic and Machines |title=The Hobbit and Philosophy: For When You've Lost Your Dwarves, Your Wizard, and Your Way |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |year=2012 |page=155 |editor-first=Gregory |editor-last=Bassham |isbn=978-0470405147}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"
|+ Sauron's opposite, as analysed by [[Verlyn Flieger]]<ref name="Flieger 2011"/>
|-
!          
! style="width: 225px;" | [[Sauron]] 
! style="width: 350px;" | Tom Bombadil
|-
| '''Role'''  || Antagonist || Earthly counterpart
|-
| '''Title'''  || Dark Lord || "Master"
|-
| '''Purpose''' || Domination of whole of Middle-earth|| Care for [[The Old Forest]]<br/>"No hidden agenda, no covert desire or plan of operation"
|-
| '''Effect of the<br/>[[One Ring]]''' || "Power over other wills" || No effect on him "as he is not human", nor does it prevent him seeing someone who is wearing the Ring
|-
| '''How he sees<br/>the Ring''' || The Eye of Sauron desires to dominate through the Ring || Looks right through it, his "blue eye peering through the circle of the Ring"
|}

=== Multiple levels of meaning ===

Jane Beal, in the ''[[Journal of Tolkien Research]]'', writes that Bombadil can be considered using "the four levels of meaning found in medieval [[scriptural exegesis]] and literary interpretation". These are different ways of understanding a text, rather than necessarily contradicting each other.<ref name="Beal 2018"/>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"
|+ Jane Beal's analysis of Bombadil's multiple levels of meaning<ref name="Beal 2018"/>
|-
! Level !! Meaning
|-
| '''Literal''' || Real world: a wooden doll that belonged to Michael Tolkien.<br/>[[Sub-creation|Sub-created world]]: "Eldest".
|-
| '''[[Allegory|Allegorical]]''' || Real world: the spirit of the vanishing English countryside.<br/>Sub-created world: a figure of the study of [[Zoology]], [[Botany]], and [[Poetry]],<br/>parallel to the first, [[prelapsarian]] Adam.{{efn|The Tolkien scholar [[Brian Rosebury]] writes that Bombadil's relation to the land of which he is the Master is "like that of an unfallen Adam to the Garden of Eden".<ref>{{cite book |last=Rosebury |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Rosebury |title=Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]  |year=2003 |page=40 |isbn=978-1-4039-1597-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/tolkienculturalp00rose/page/40}}</ref> }}
|-
| '''Moral''' || A storyteller, representative of Tolkien himself.
|-
| '''[[Anagogical]]''' || A figure of the second Adam, [[Jesus]].
|}

=== Jungian interpretation ===

{{see also|Psychological journeys of Middle-earth}}

The psychologist [[Timothy O'Neill (camoufleur)|Timothy R. O'Neill]] interpreted Bombadil from a [[Jungian]] perspective in ''[[The Individuated Hobbit|The Individuated Hobbit: Jung, Tolkien, and the Archetypes of Middle-Earth]]'' (1979).<ref>{{cite book |last=Honegger |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Honegger |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bGCzDwAAQBAJ&dq=jung+tolkien++Bombadil&pg=PT133 |chapter=More Light Than Shadow? Jungian Approaches to Tolkien and the Archetypal Image of the Shadow |editor-last=Agnoloni |editor-first=Giovanni |title=Tolkien: Light and Shadow |publisher=Kipple Officina Libraria |location=Torriglia, Italy |year=2019 |isbn=9788832179071 }}</ref> O'Neill finds Bombadil to be the manifestation of the [[Jungian archetypes|<!-- cap on purpose-->Self archetype]] and a vision of man's beginning and destiny:<ref name="O'Neill 1979"/>

{{blockquote|A common and potent archetype is Original Man, which Jung often calls [[Adam_Kadmon#Gnosticism|Anthropos]], emerging as a conscious representative of the Self. Bombadil, despite his apparently humble digs in the Old Forest, is the prototype of the [[People of God|Children of God]], that Original Man and the template which will influence the final form of Man... he is the cosmic seed from which Man develops."<ref name="O'Neill 1979">{{cite book |last=O'Neill |first=Timothy R. |author-link=Timothy O'Neill (camoufleur) |title=The Individuated Hobbit: Jung, Tolkien, and the Archetypes of Middle-Earth |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton Mifflin]] |location=Boston, Massachusetts |year=1979 |pages=120–125 |isbn=978-0-395-28208-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/individuatedhobb00onei/page/120/mode/2up?q=bombadil}}</ref>}}

The Tolkien scholar Patrick Grant notes that "Jung also talks of a common figure, the 'vegetation numen,' king of the forest, who is associated with wood and water in a manner that recalls Tom Bombadil."<ref>{{cite book |first=Patrick |last=Grant |chapter=[[Understanding The Lord of the Rings|Tolkien: Archetype and Word]] |editor-last=Zimbardo |editor-first=Rose A. |editor-link=Rose A. Zimbardo |title=Understanding The Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |location=Boston, Massachusetts |year=2004 |page=162 |isbn=978-0-618-42251-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780618422517/page/162 }}</ref>

=== Early interpretations ===

[[Robert Foster (author)|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]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Foster |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Foster (author) |title=The Complete Guide to Middle Earth |date=1978 |publisher=[[Ballantine Books|Ballentine]] |location=New York City |isbn=978-0739432976 |page=492}}</ref>
The Tolkien scholar and philosopher Gene Hargrove argued in ''[[Mythlore]]'' in 1986 that Tolkien understood who Bombadil is, but purposefully made him enigmatic. Hargrove suggested that Tolkien left clues that Bombadil is one of the [[Vala (Middle-earth)|Valar]], a god of Middle-Earth, specifically [[Aulë]], the archangelic demigod who created the [[Dwarf (Middle-earth)|dwarves]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hargrove |first=Gene |title=Who Is Tom Bombadil? |journal=[[Mythlore]] |date=1986 |volume=13 |number=1 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol13/iss1/3/ }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Hargrove |first=Gene |title=Who Is Tom Bombadil? (updated) |journal=Beyond Bree |date=August 1987 |url=https://itservices.cas.unt.edu/~hargrove/tombomb.html }}</ref>