Tom Bom, merry Tom

[Tabouli]

As someone who almost made a "Bring Back Bombadil!" T-shirt to wear to FOTK, I can't let all this Bombadillic discussion go by without comment...

Nox:
> I really do miss Tom Bombadil though. I know he wasn't a major
character, but he was an interesting one.

Ring-a-ding-dillo to that!  I like LOTR, but I've always found it a bit humourless.  Oh, there are a few stuffy attempts, and Treebeard (my other favorite) has his moments, but the only time when Tolkien really lets his hair down is with his shamelessly whimsical portrayal of Bombadil.  An eternal earth father beyond even the power of the Ring as this bouncy little man in brightly coloured clothing singing silly rhymes... it's just priceless!  I think he deserves a least a cameo in all the movies and things, but no-one listens to me.

Geoff:
>I've always felt Tom Bombadil was very peripheral to the story. In 
1981, the BBC ran a superb 26 part radio version (with Ian Holm as 
Frodo interestingly enough) and, in that, TB was also left out.<

Kathryn:
> Still the one thing Peter
Jackson has going in his favour above everything else is the total removal
of Tom Bombadil from the storyline - can't fault him for that. It is the
most boring and pointless section of the books, other than Weathertop I
spend all the pages between Bree and Rivendell wishing JRRT would just get
*on* with things!<

Boring?  *Boring*?

My first contact with LOTR was as a seven year old child.  My father read it to me aloud as a bedtime story whenever I went to bed early enough.  I found (and still find) the Old Forest sequence one of the most eerie and fascinating in the entire book.  The sinister, sentient trees that whisper and shift and lure travellers into the heart of the forest.  Old Man Willow sucking Merry and Pippin into his trunk and threatening to squeeze them in two.  The wonderful absurd rescue from this singing man in yellow boots, who has, infathomably, shacked up with a silver-green water nymph called Goldberry (!).  The hot baths and lavish meals and stories.  The intriguing scene with Tom and the Ring.  The creepy, creepy business with the Barrow-Wights the following day, who are banished by (hee!) the summoning of Tom by chanting one of his ridiculous poems... how could one not be moved?

I agree that it's not actually essential to the plot, and sadly concede that that's why it gets the chop all the time, but I do like it.  I think FOTR is the best of the three books, and the Bombadil scene is a great story within the story.

It's all that tedious tosh with Merry and Pippin in the city in Part III which is boring.  Why on earth would anyone care what they're up to when Frodo and the intriguing Gollum (whom I agree with Pullman is the most interesting character in the book, if lacking Tom's whimsical charm) are on their way to Mordor with the Ring?  If it wasn't for Treebeard, I'd skim that section every time.

In praise of Tom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo...

Tabouli.

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