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Gandalf and Tom Bombadil's chat after the downfall of Sauron

Deleted member 16516

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'But if you would know, I am turning aside soon. I am going to have a long talk with Bombadil: such a talk as I have not had in all my time. He is a moss-gatherer, and I have been a stone doomed to rolling. But my rolling days are ending, and now we shall have much to say to one another.'

The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King.

An intriguing quote from The Lord of the Rings and one that has provided for much speculation throughout the years.

What do you Gandalf and Tom talked about?

Was Gandalf reporting in to an avatar of Eru Iluvatar or Aulë after the completion of his labours against Sauron the Great?

Was he reminiscing with an old friend from the Halls of Eä before Arda was created and talking about what the future held for Arda and whether or not they would ever be needed again before the destruction of Arda and the creation of the Second Arda?

Was he seeking advice on how to live his life after living for years as a 'rolling stone' from a being who knew all about contentment in his surroundings?

Or did they talk about the Ents, which of all things in Middle-earth Tom was greatly interested in? Perhaps the fate of the Entwives?

Or maybe Gandalf went to confront the 'real' Dark Lord?

Or something else?
 
The Adder

The Adder

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Oct 25, 2017
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Just shooting the shit. But for beings who have lived as long as they have and are as long lived as they are, that can go for a very long time.
 
DrForester

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They got totally baked, then Tom showed him the One Ring, which he never really gave back to Frodo, setting up a 4th age Sequel.
 
fanboi

fanboi

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Tom Bombadil is an Avatar of you and me, the reader. So the discussion was about whatever you imagine.
 
SoH

SoH

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Oct 25, 2017
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My read on this has been a nod to oral tradition and its role in history. Contrast to examples of written history such as There and Back Again... The content of what was discussed isn't so much of importance* as that Gandalf's experiences were passed on before he did.

* as it relates to the events of LOTR.
 
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subpar spatula

subpar spatula

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Inquisitive_Ghost said:
Has there ever been any indication at all of who or what Tom Bombadil actually was?
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Nope. He can be kind of anything from Eru to a nature spirit to the Ainu of time or whatever. He's a paradoxical being who can be whatever you want. It could very well be he exists as some actual physical memory of the world actually existing.

But who knows.

He just sings and gets baked.
 
Ferrs

Ferrs

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DrForester said:
Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master
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WhovianGamer said:
Whoa! Whoa! steady there! Now, my little fellows, where be you a-going to, puffing like a bellows? What's the matter here then? Do you know who I am? I'm Tom Bombadil. Tell me what's your trouble! Tom's in a hurry now. Don't you crush my lilies!
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.. aight, I think I got it!

SevereImaginativeGrison-size_restricted.gif
 
Browser

Browser

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Is it over?

Yes my lord, sauron is destroyed.

Excellent. And the halflings?

I made sure they spoke no word of you.

I will not chance it. Take care of it.

Yes, my lord

After this is done, we can begin.

The wheels are in motion

Good. Lets give it a push

The End...?
 
OP
OP

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Inquisitive_Ghost said:
Has there ever been any indication at all of who or what Tom Bombadil actually was?
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Tolkien said the following in a letter to one of his readers:
As a story, I think it is good that there should be a lot of things unexplained (especially if an explanation actually exists); and I have perhaps from this point of view erred in trying to explain too much, and give too much past history. Many readers have, for instance, rather stuck at the Council of Elrond. And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally) ...

Tom Bombadil is not an important person - to the narrative. I suppose he has some importance as a 'comment'. I mean, I do not really write like that: he is just an invention (who first appeared in the Oxford Magazine about 1933), and he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyze the feeling precisely. I would not, however, have left him in, if he did not have some kind of function. I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. But if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless. It is a natural pacifist view, which always arises in the mind when there is a war. But the view of Rivendell seems to be that it is an excellent thing to have represented, but that there are in fact things with which it cannot cope; and upon which its existence nonetheless depends. Ultimately only the victory of the West will allow Bombadil to continue, or even to survive. Nothing would be left for him in the world of Sauron.

He has no connexion in my mind with the Entwives. What had happened to them is not resolved in this book. He is in a way the answer to them in the sense that he is almost the opposite, being say, Botany and Zoology (as sciences) and Poetry as opposed to Cattle-breeding and Agriculture and practicality.
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Rad Bandolar

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Bombadil seems like a guy who's trapped in Middle-Earth like it's Jumanji, but with the cheat codes turned on.

When Gandalf comes to talk to him, the story's over and he's finally released.
 
Gernau Morat Gurgeh

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I always like the weirdness of Bombadil, and was surprised to find a lot of people (at least in my experience) hated the character.
 
Ogodei

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My take on Bombadil is that he was a genius locii, a true "native" of Endor, even moreso than the Elves whose lives were the lives of the world, Bombadil was a spirit who wholly belonged to his place and took on a form to fit it.

Kind of like the Redhorn mountain which is taken to have a hostile spirit, but is not affiliated with Sauron. There are entities that belong in Middle Earth wholly, and Tom and Goldberry are two of them (indeed, Goldberry makes it more obvious being specifically of the River Withywindle)
 
Truly Gargantuan

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I imagine they did drugs and Tom made his forest friends do trippy shit and they all had a good giggle about it. Then they probably talked shit like "man...those Elves sure are smokin' ain't they? Too bad they all have their pointy noses stuck way up their ass."
 
bionic77

bionic77

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Oct 25, 2017
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It was basically a discussion of who was hotter between Arwen and Galadriel. Gimli was to the tie breaker if they couldn't come to an agreement.
 
Team_Feisar

Team_Feisar

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They got high, merged into one being, traveled into the far future and started harassing one Jean-Luc Picard for shits and giggles
 

SuperSunBro

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Probably the future of Middle-earth, what comes after. Probably talked about Saruman too, and the other wizards.
 
Biske

Biske

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Probably just hang out and shoot the shit. Not all that many people on middle earth can truly identify with, in that "out of place anomaly" kind of being that they both are.
 
Noaloha

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I certainly read it as Gandalf turning to a 'removed' entity and enquiring after that mode of being.
 
EatChildren

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Gandalf's love for the smaller, simpler things alongside the bold and grand is uprooted by the events of LOTR. He became enveloped in the most wonderous and awful of things, on a scale unlike anything else. The creature comforts of old, like spending time with the hobbits, not in the least bit comparable to the escalation of the war against Sauron.

Much fitting of Tolkien's description of Bombadil, Gandalf wishing to speak with him is a desire to seek out the ultimate offset to the journey he's been on. That amidst all this tragedy and dispair, hope and glory, these great events that have forever shaped and scarred Middle Earth in one way or another, all of which Gandalf has been so deeply central to, there sits Tom Bombadil in all his passive quaintness and contentment with simply being at peace and alive, despite his implied grandeur and mystery.

He's the other side of it all. The creature comfort. The reminder that despite all that Gandalf has been through, all he's seen and will remember, and all he's become, there sits Tom Bombadil as was and always is, and all is well. And maybe all they talk about is just those simple things that bring us comfort and peace.
 
TheZynster

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Bombadil

A man so badass that he used the one ring for a magic trick on Frodo.

dude was like, oh nice trinket
 
grand

grand

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What Tom is and what you perceive him as doesn't matter. He's a meta character who exists outside of the story. He could be god in the book, god in real life, Tolkien himself or anything in-between. Doesn't matter. All the matters is that Tom is a character who was intentionally made to neither be effected by nor affect anything in the story or middle earth. It's not a question of who or what but rather "is". Tom is and he exists and that's all there is to it.
 

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I think Bombadil is something more primal, in much the same way that Ungoliant existed within the void before creation and not even the Valar knew where she came from, just that she was always there in the abyss. Tolkien describes Bombadil as "Eldest" and says he "remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn," which doesn't sound like something you say to describe a creator but something that already existed and had creation spring up around them. Personally, I've always interpreted Tom Bombadil as being a pre-creation spirit of goodness and joy that always was and always will be. The way Tolkien describes him, he seems so completely above the fight between the good and evil, to say nothing of the mortal fray, that he must be something all together different.

I don't think there's any purpose involved in Gandalf seeking him out, because Bombadil doesn't get involved. He is above and beyond. I like to think that after all his many trials, Gandalf went to Tom Bombadil just to heal his soul.
 
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100% they shroomed out every night watching reruns until Goldberry got sick of Tom's shit and kicked them out.
 
XaviConcept

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I dont see much mystery, hes like an NBA player saying "Im going to Disneyland!" After winning the title

His job is finally done, now he gets to have fun
 

Sneaky Gato

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I thought of him going as a sort of cleansing process where two higher beings could converse on the more spiritual effects of the events that had happened.
 
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