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Love in the Trees - Page 3

© Michael Martinez

Why did Bombadil withdraw into his "little land", and when? People have asked those questions many times over. Of course, most readers seem to feel that Bombadil never had the freedom to move across the land, that he must always have lived in or near the Old Forest, since Time itself began (which would be a little too long -- Bombadil only claimed to remember the first raindrop in Middle-earth). Bombadil told Frodo and his companions that he was there when the Elves first passed by on their way to the West, and he was there when the Dark Lord came from Outside (presumably, when Melkor escaped from Valinor and returned to Middle-earth). But Bombadil doesn't say that he had sat on the same hill for uncounted ages. He merely says he was around when ancient things first happened. He goes on to share considerable knowledge, for example, about the history of Arnor and its successor states, Arthedain, Cardolan, and Rhudaur. Could Bombadil really have learned so much about the Dunedain -- even to the point of recalling the beauty of a Dunadan princess or lady -- had he not traveled around and gotten to know people? And why would Gandalf say "now he is withdrawn into a little land, within bounds thathe has set", if Bombadil had never wandered farther afield than those "bounds he has set, though none can see them"? Elrond's familiarity with Bombadil is revealed through a brief catalog of names he reveals for the old scalawag: "But I had forgotten Bombadil, if indeed this is still the same that walked the woods and hills long ago, and even then was older than old. Iarwain Ben-adar we called him, oldest and fatherless. But many another name he has since been given by other folk: Forn by the Dwarves, Orald by Northern Men, and other names besides." Well, the histories don't suggest that Dwarves spent any time in the Barrow-downs or the Old Forest, so why would they bother giving a name to Bombadil, unless he had traveled among them at some point? Bombadil is often described as a free spirit. In fact, before writing The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien referred to Bombadil as "the spirit of the (vanishing) Oxford and Berkshire countryside". Bombadil existed before The Lord of the Rings, having been introduced to an unsuspecting world through a poem published in Oxford Magazine. He originated as a doll owned by one of the Tolkien children, and Bombadil's adventures were merely one collection in a series of collections of adventures Tolkien made up for his children. So Bombadil's pre-LoTR existence is very different from his LoTR existence. He is much less sophisticated and far-ranging, a bit more volatile. He is a classic adventurous young man, running around without a care in the world.

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