Tom Bombadil is the best NPC in the Lord of the Rings Online MMO, if only because he yells "HEY DILLY DILL-O!" every time you click on him. Every time, with no limit to how many times the sample will play simultaneously (beyond what your hardware can handle). So if you spam-click the ever-loving shit out of him, it summons a cacophonous nightmare into a brief yet painful existence.
Landscape descriptions are the veggies of classic literature. Gotta eat them to deserve the desserts. And without them the imagery of the story, from the earliest illustrations to the films, would likely be much poorer.
That's not an uncommon theory, but I personally interpret him as just a part of the world that is outside the knowledge/mythology of the elves. He wouldn't be the first character that's true of. For all of her impact on the story, the Elves don't really know what Ungoliant was, exactly.
thanks for the context of other similar characters.
It's been a long while since I was big on all my Tolkien... is Bombadil seen as roughly as powerful and capable as others outside the knowledge of elves, or is he still particularly powerful when comparing to those sorts of mysterious characters?
Bombadil's magic is tied to his home in the Old Forest. He's a nature spirit, I suppose. He's not affected by the Ring's power of temptation (the temptation of power?), and I guess could be called an unfallen being in a Christian sense (unlike Men or Elves).
The creature I brought up, Ungoliant, is an incarnation of all-consuming darkness. She doesn't want power, she just wants, and that is her power. I don't think they can be given relative rankings the way that Men, Elves, and Maiar can because they're fundamentally different.
The Legendarium is enhanced overall by having these kinds of "holes". It shows that the cosmology the elves know is incomplete. For example, they don't know the circumstances under which Men "awoke" in Middle Earth. All they know is "Oh, and one day these hairy dudes showed up and they die for, like, no reason."
Which leads me to my pet theory that Tolkien left the origins of Man misty so that Paradise Lost, the great work of English literature, could be more or less canon. Paradise Lost also has these personification-characters, namely Sin, Death, and Chaos, who exist outside the families(?) of Men and Angels.
Damn, this is a really good post and I love the comparisons to Paradise Lost in that way. I enjoyed reading Paradise Lost but had never conceived of Bombadil etc in the same way, so you have given me a lot of interesting stuff to mull over.
Tom Bombadil fits more with the lighthearted Hobbit than the brooding LotR, though the fact that the ring has no power over him, unlike every other character, is cool.
The Old Forest is one of my favorite parts though. The ancient graves alive with deadly magic unrelated to Mordor - scary stuff.
I liked the Tom Bombadil/Old Forest parts :sadness:
Tom Bombadil is the best NPC in the Lord of the Rings Online MMO, if only because he yells "HEY DILLY DILL-O!" every time you click on him. Every time, with no limit to how many times the sample will play simultaneously (beyond what your hardware can handle). So if you spam-click the ever-loving shit out of him, it summons a cacophonous nightmare into a brief yet painful existence.
Don't sleep on LoTRO surprisingly fun MMO to pick up for a couple weeks
It was damn better than al the minute by minute descriptions of their forest travels.
Or the extensive geological report on various rock strata in Helm's deep.
SMH, kids these days can't even appreciate the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, their too busy with their smartphones.
Landscape descriptions are the veggies of classic literature. Gotta eat them to deserve the desserts. And without them the imagery of the story, from the earliest illustrations to the films, would likely be much poorer.
My favourite part of the books.
Was Bombadil supposed to be a Creator analogue or what?
That's not an uncommon theory, but I personally interpret him as just a part of the world that is outside the knowledge/mythology of the elves. He wouldn't be the first character that's true of. For all of her impact on the story, the Elves don't really know what Ungoliant was, exactly.
thanks for the context of other similar characters.
It's been a long while since I was big on all my Tolkien... is Bombadil seen as roughly as powerful and capable as others outside the knowledge of elves, or is he still particularly powerful when comparing to those sorts of mysterious characters?
Bombadil's magic is tied to his home in the Old Forest. He's a nature spirit, I suppose. He's not affected by the Ring's power of temptation (the temptation of power?), and I guess could be called an unfallen being in a Christian sense (unlike Men or Elves).
The creature I brought up, Ungoliant, is an incarnation of all-consuming darkness. She doesn't want power, she just wants, and that is her power. I don't think they can be given relative rankings the way that Men, Elves, and Maiar can because they're fundamentally different.
The Legendarium is enhanced overall by having these kinds of "holes". It shows that the cosmology the elves know is incomplete. For example, they don't know the circumstances under which Men "awoke" in Middle Earth. All they know is "Oh, and one day these hairy dudes showed up and they die for, like, no reason."
Which leads me to my pet theory that Tolkien left the origins of Man misty so that Paradise Lost, the great work of English literature, could be more or less canon. Paradise Lost also has these personification-characters, namely Sin, Death, and Chaos, who exist outside the families(?) of Men and Angels.
Damn, this is a really good post and I love the comparisons to Paradise Lost in that way. I enjoyed reading Paradise Lost but had never conceived of Bombadil etc in the same way, so you have given me a lot of interesting stuff to mull over.
:gold-antifa:
Thanks a lot for the response
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Tom Bombadil fits more with the lighthearted Hobbit than the brooding LotR, though the fact that the ring has no power over him, unlike every other character, is cool.
The Old Forest is one of my favorite parts though. The ancient graves alive with deadly magic unrelated to Mordor - scary stuff.
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