Tom Bombadil as Metafantasy

I've recently been reading The Fellowship of the Ring to my son and we just got through the Tom Bombadil chapters.  I have written down some thoughts in regards to what Tolkien was doing with this character.  All quotes are from the Houghton Mifflin Fiftieth Anniversary One-Volume Edition (the difinitive text by the way)  ISBN 978-0-618-64015-7.  You can read Tolkien's famous lecture titled "On Fairy Stories" in The Tolkien Reader.

The hobbits’ journey through the Old Forest and Borrow Downs is a very odd portion of the book. It takes up forty pages and doesn’t seem to move the plot forward much, and Tom Bombadil never makes another appearance. (Note that Peter Jackson excised the entire section) It seems to be, if I may wax metaphoric, a burl on the trunk of the tree that Tolkien is creating. So, why is Tom Bombadil in the story?


I think that Tom Bombadil is the personification of Faerie Story itself, i.e. a meta-faerie story within the story. By comparing what Tolkien had to say about the origins and purpose of fairy stories to Tom Bombadil we can see that Tom embodies the true “Tolkienesque” model of a fairy story.

As to his origin he is called Eldest; for he is older than “the rivers and the trees” and was there to witness the very creation of middle earth. Tolkien says of the origins of fairy stories, “To ask what is the origin of story…is to ask what is the origin of language and of the mind.” So we see that Tolkien saw fairy stories as being participatory in the creation of the human conscience from the very first, just as Tom himself was. (For more information on this see my entry concerning the Epistemology of Owen Barfield)

Tom also personifies the purpose of fairy stories: Fantasy, Recovery, Escape and Consolation as explained in “On Fairy Stories.” Tolkien describes Fantasy as “both the sub-creative Art in itself and a quality of strangeness and wonder in the Expression derived from the image.” Tom’s own words to the hobbits is a perfect example of this sub-creative quality. Almost never does Tolkien state what Tom actually says, but only expresses the image created by his words. Pgs 129-131 could be quoted from almost at random to show this but here is a prime cut, “Suddenly Tom’s talk left the woods and went leaping up the young stream, over bubbling waterfalls, over pebbles and worn rocks…wandering at last up on to the Downs” (130). Tom’s words create a context for the Old Forest in Frodo’s mind which eventually encompasses the entirety of the creation of Middle Earth, “and still on and back Tom went singing out into ancient starlight” (131).  Fot Tolkien, true fantasy was an art for adults, and it was only created when
the reader is forced back into their role as subcreator by the author of the fairy story.  The effect of Tom's singing on the hobbits is a perfect example of this relationship between author and reader.

He embodies the quality of Recovery in the refreshing of mind and body that the hobbits experience while under Tom’s roof. After one nights sleep Tom wakens the hobbits and, “they leaped up refreshed.” We also see this in the food they eat there, “The drink…seemed to be clear cold water but went to their hearts like wine and set free their voices.”

As for Escape, the hobbits literally escape into the Old Forest from the clutches of the Black Riders. There they find a world “more alive” and full of wonder. Upon leaving the presence of Tom Sam comments, “I reckon we may go a good deal further and see naught better, not queerer.” In the ultimate sense of the word escape, escape from death, Tom also provides examples. Tom saves them twice; once from Old Man Willow and also from the Barrow-Wight. Both of these events constitute a mini-eucatastrophy, as Pippin (inside of Old Man Willow) and the whole company (inside the Barrow) were completely beyond help and then are saved at the last moment by Tom.

Finally there is the consolation of Tom Bombadil. He whispers to them in their frightened sleep and puts their worried minds to sleep peacefully. He also brings them advice and direction after saving them from the Barrow-Wight, and thus provides them consolation about the course they should take in Gandalf’s absence.

Tom Bombadil is a metaphor created by Tolkien to express his own undersatinding of value of the the art he was producing.  Tom Bombadil is metafantasy.