Love in the Trees - Page 9
© Michael Martinez
As the Hobbits get know her, they see Goldberry come and go. Sometimes she is there, sometimes she is away, and Tom merely explains she is going about her business. She is therefore a bit mysterious, and she keeps the (male) Hobbits interested by not always being there. Whenever Goldberry enters a room, she takes breaths away. The Hobbts watch her move gracefully about the room without saying a word.
When the dinner is finished, Tom and Goldberry give the Hobbits stools for their feet by the hearth, and Goldberry holds a candle in her hands after putting out most of the lights. She sits by the hearth and sings many songs for her guests. So, she is warm and friendly, very open, but a radiant source of poetic inspiration. Tom, of course, adores Goldberry, and he constantly brings her gifts, and awakens her by singing beneath her window. He may be his own man, but he makes it clear that he is also Goldberry's man. And Goldberry flows through Tom's home and heart like a fresh spring gushing from a mountainside.
In dream symbology, water is a sign of sexuality when it is associated with a beautiful woman. Tolkien carefully associates Goldberry with water, through her naming (as the River-woman's daughter) and Tom's gifts of water-lillies, as well as through her fluid movements, her enchanted dance in the rain, and her speech and idiom. Goldberry is very sensual, but she is reserved and distant. That is, she saves herself for Tom, and doesn't open herself up completely (sexually) for her guests. The reader may wonder how Tom can stay up so long talking with his guests when Goldberry is waiting, but the fact that Goldberry is waiting, and that Tom goes to her at night, shows they are not having any problems with their intimacy.
And finally, Goldberry takes charge of the meals. She selects the menu and announces when the food is ready. She also tries to satisfy Frodo's curiosity about Tom, and to allay the Hobbits' fears. "Let us shut out the night! For you are still afraid, perhaps, of mist and tree-shadows and deep water, and untame things. Fear nothing! For tonight you are under the roof of Tom Bombadil."
Goldberry serves as the mediator between Tom and the Hobbits, just as a mother often serves as a mediator between a father and his children. She opens Tom's house to his guest and bids them farewell. She keeps the house in order and sets the pace at which homelife runs. Things happen when Goldberry decides they should happen, and she and Tom have a very satisfied and fulfilling life together. For they each seek to please the other, and take no thought for their own wants or desires. Each is content.
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