Tom Bombadil

Originally I was not going to post about Tom Bombadil because I though many would, seeing that thus far no one has I will take the liberty of doing so. Like many of Tolkien’s character’s, Tom is very complex and that makes him hard to understand at times. While we are pretty sure he is good there are times when his actions contradict what we know of him. Tom tells the Hobbit’s he doesn’t want to be involved with the ring but he still asks to see it and he plays around with it. He continues to show disinterest by basically scoffing at it, as if making fun of those fighting over it. Another time when Bombadil’s actions are questionable is when you read the poems about him in Tolkien’s Reader you discover that he basically saw Goldberry by the river one day, became obsessed with her, and stole her away from what he considered an overprotective mom. Now I don’t know how people reading this feel about that but I think that is pretty sketchy. It only makes it worse that his excuse for leaving the party is that Goldberry is waiting for him, at first I thought it was sweet, now I am wondering if he doesn’t want her to run away. On the flip side of this Bombadil saves the Hobbit’s twice, once from old man willow and once from the Burrow-wights, when he normally doesn’t go out of his way to help anyone else. I’m still very on the fence about my feelings about Tom Bombadil, specifically because he kidnapped Goldberry, but I do wonder what other’s opinions are?