Editing Tom Bombadil (section)

=== 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/>
|}