Tolkien and the Natural Powers of Middle-earth

[Riv Res]

Tolkien and the Natural Powers of Middle-earth

© Roger Garland

We had a lively discussion about how Bombadil was different from the the wizards and how the Professor used both he and the Ents and other earth powers as older and some how beyond the plain of everyday life on Middle Earth. Any takers for a new thread?

Yes we have takers. Who wants to get us started?

House Rules

[bruce rerek]

I have always found the most ancient powers, ones that have little to do with either the forces of good or evil to be facinating. In the Hobbit the Professor introduces us to the mountain gods who ammuse themselves by throwing boulders. From what I have read Tom Bombadil first came out as a rhyme and was later inserted into the Fellowship of the Ring. Some might argue that they were uncessary and even distracting. I would say otherwise.
The fundamental question is what does this say about the nature of consciousness in Tolkien's universe? While the machinations of the One Ring play out, those who have been there since the first acorn and rain drop hold little conern or even care about such matters. Are they aloof or has their long life given them a gift of wisdom we can hardly appreciate or even comprehend? One could easily claim that Old Man Willow Caraharas are malovelent entities. Is a hurricane or a virus agents of evil, of course not, they are simply dreadful powers that one must appreciate and take care in confronting.
The Professor also gives us a insight into how to recover the enchantment of nature that we have been alienated from. The natural world is full of wonder and has its ways that we are barely aware of or can hardly replicate. The arrogance of Sauruman also included his contempt for the natural world. The first insight one can gain is that our world view or how we frame what we call reality is one that is very limited.
Bombadil speaks to what ancients have known for generations; nature is subtle and often confounding. Most traditions have created a Trickster god to articulate this form of consciousness. I am not claiming that Bombadil is Tolkien's Trickster, but rather a fuller illustration of a greater world that is both awesome and terrifying.

[Iolanthe]

Oooo, interesting subject. Bombadil and the Ents are a real source of wonder in the story, aren't they? Gandalf is a source of wonder himself, of course. But he hasn't been in Middle-earth from the beginning, he's come from the West and he's a new arrival by comparison. But Bombadil and the Ents have always been there from the beginning . With all the Valar and Maiar (except Sauron, Saruman and Gandalf) in an almost mythical West that only Noldor like Galadriel have seen they are the only ancient 'first' beings who share a home with all the other races.

Apart from being protectors of Nature one of the significant things that they share is how uninvolved with events in Middle-earth they are - until the Ents get roused at Isenguard of course! They are there but not really there, if you know what I mean, unless you stumble accross them. No one amongst the Fellowship except Gandalf knows the Ents even exist. Tom keeps himself to himself between the Old Forest and the Barrow Downs where only the foolhardy are likely to find him. They seem to belong to the earth but not it's people.

I think it's very important to any great story to know that there are still old forgotten mysteries in the world . If they were proactive medders in M-e they couldn't hold that place. It's good to have a little bit of awe!

[Iolanthe]

Hello Bruce , just cross posted with you! Seems like we have similar thoughts .

[Merry]

I, too, find these hints and snips at mysteries most intriguing. In real life, there are just some things we don't understand, and Tolkien plants these things in Middle-earth, too, so we have that sense of reality. In some ways, it's comforting: as scary as the big storm on Caradhras was, it might have helped the Company to know that it might not have had anything to do with their mission.

[Iolanthe]

The world would certainly be a poorer place without mystery! In a letter of 1954 Tolkien wrote:

...even in a mythological Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally).

So our feelings are spot on with Tolkien's there!

This is the comment about Bombadil, made by Elrond, that intrigues me most:

"Power to defy our Enemy is not in him, unless such power is in the earth itself"

That pretty much confirms that Bombadil is something totally different from Gandalf, any other Maiar or the Valar, who do have power to defy the Enemy. But there is a lot of belief out there that he was a Maiar because what else could he be? Was he always something different? Did he become something different because he has always been in Middle-earth from the beginning?

I don't think this passage is saying he doesn't have power, but that it's not power as we know it. He is totally beyond the struggle between Good and Evil that is being played out in Middle-earth in the same way the earth itself is. He is what he is and nothing changes him. Because of that the Ring has no meaning for him. It really is intriguing! To create a being that is outside all that is going on - even the Valar are involved (they sent Gandalf) - is pretty unique I think.

I think this is a very telling passage too:

'Fair lady!' said Frodo again after a while. 'Tell me, if my asking does not seem foolish, who is Tom Bombadil?'

'He is,' said Goldberry, staying her swift movements and smiling.

Frodo looked at her questioningly. 'He is, as you have seen him,' she said in answer to his look. 'He is Master of wood, water, and hill.'

It looks like 'He is.' is the whole answer, although Goldberry obligingly tries to elaborate for Frodo. That's a statement to stop you in your tracks, although it's clear Tolkien doesn't mean us to take Bobmbadil for God. But he certainly shares at least the characteristic of just being with Him.

[Merry]

Great assessment of the big Bombadil question, Iolanthe!

Let me get all metaphysical for a minute. I agree that Tolkien didn't mean for us to confuse Tom with God. But he had to know that the 'He is' answer would evoke that biblical passage in the minds of Judeo-Christian readers. But in the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas (and I'm sure that Tolkien would have been well familiar with this, since Aquinas is the Catholic Church's main philosopher), the 'He is' answer is also understood to mean that God is absolutely unique--He/She/It (no pronoun is really adequate) belongs to no species or set or category or kind of being. So there is no answer that is adequate to the question of 'who or what are you?'

My guess is that JRRT was invoking that kind of thinking in reference to TB--he is just singular.

[Iolanthe]

That's really interesting, Merry! I think you're right about the Aquinas explanation. That's the characteristic that Bombadil shares with the Divine, a total uniquness that can't be referenced alongside anything or anyone else so can't be explained, only experienced.

Goldberry, as the River's Daughter, counts as another earth power. To me she is just as mysterious as Bombadil. When it pours with rain, Tom desribes it as:

'Goldberry's washing day,' he said, 'and her autumn cleaning...'

and she seems to be singing a song to conjour the rain:

'They could hear few words, but it seemed plain to them that the song was a rain-song,'

So it seems she has power over water. She isn't an elf. When Frodo first sees her:

'He stood as he had at times stood enchanted by fair-elven voices; but the spell that was now laid upon him was different...'

If she is the River's Daughter what does that make her? Is it just a metaphor, or is she the daughter of one of the Maiar (although they all seem to favour the sea and salty streams to hang about in...). Is she a Maiar herself? Or is she a totally unique being like Bombadil?

I guess it's reassuring to know that no matter what Sauron and Saruman do there are powers at work ensuring that the rain falls, plants grow and the seasons turn. If they were all involved like Gandalf in the battle for Middle-earth who knows what disaster would ensue.