I read The Hobbit first about 45 years ago, but never was interesting in LOTR. Now at 65 I’m reading The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time. I’ve just met Tom B. for the first time. So, this was a lovely, timely video.
@ande1006 ай бұрын
I could sit in a comfy chair and listen to You for hours. My love of Tolkien started at age 10 with the Hobbit. At 12 I got the 3 book set of The Lord of the Rings. I've been hooked ever since. (I'll be 60 in a few months).
@dave7106 ай бұрын
Same for me. I am 66 now.
@paulburrell41206 ай бұрын
Similar. Read the Hobbit at 9 and then devoured the larger work at 12. 57 now, with more than a dozen re-reads under my belt.
@dave7106 ай бұрын
A short true tale for you all. When my son Peter was 10, I said you must read The Hobbit, and gave him my copy. 2 months later, he said that he had. So, I said that I never expected the dragon to be killed by a sword. He said, "I know, neither did I." At was at this point, he was caught out. Anyway, he then did read it and loved it.
@Playingwith3D6 ай бұрын
you mirrored my experience buy I'm slightly older at 61 lol
@wrichardchen6 ай бұрын
This blend between fantasy, its development, and bibliographical context is such an eye-opener! Also, I spy a shiny new KZbin plaque in the background ✨
@kkay37846 ай бұрын
This video was as enchanting as the topic. I am still smiling from ear to ear.
@jamesbarbaro20806 ай бұрын
A classic is a work in which you discover another layer, facet, or meaning every time you read. I have read Tolkien's works for half a century and will never be finished. They are never-dying friends.
@lindaempleo31375 күн бұрын
I’m a HUGE fan of the whole series! I love the information you have brought to us of dear old TOM B. Absolute love your information!
@garywait32315 ай бұрын
So glad I discovered your wonderful channel !!
@karlnygren6 ай бұрын
Thank you for creating this video and thus also for researching it and keeping it simple and without a lot of speculation which tends to enter when Bombadil is the subject. I leave feeling more knowledgable 🙂
@Bhenderson00016 ай бұрын
I've never seen this history of Tom Bombadil laid out so completely before. Tom Bombadil is such a mystery, for some reason I connect him with the Green Man, maybe I have read it somewhere. Thank you for this very useful history Tom.
@ringberar6 ай бұрын
Thank you for this channel. It truly, truly means a lot to me. I am a small and modest book collector myself. I just love your videos - especially - on Tolkien. Tom Bombadil is my favorite.
@flamencoprof6 ай бұрын
Top stuff! I still have my 1968 Third Impression of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, the very book you held up. It was probably the latest you could get when I bought it and thus the book dates me as well. I also have Tree and Leaf, and Smith of Wootton Major, from the same period.
@SilverionX5 ай бұрын
I always thought of Tom Bombadil as one of those mysterious, unexplained beings that Tolkien likes to throw in every now and then. He's like a force of nature, maybe the spirit of the land. He has absolute power in his domain, and almost none outside it.
@TiernanCormier6 ай бұрын
Stumbled upon and loved this video so much. What a thoughtful but well researched venture into a legendary literary character’s historical underpinnings. Also: what a backdrop! There’s a collection that I just know contains some gems! 👌👌
@jacquelyndixon27885 ай бұрын
Your passion for all things LOTR, and books, your fluid delivery, and your depth of knowledge is intoxicating. Well done.
@kirbymarchbarcena6 ай бұрын
This is so informative and most of what was mentioned here are not even told by other YT Tolkienian channels.
@maryannec.moravec62896 ай бұрын
Great discussion and terrific delivery! Thank you .
@TheTolkienCurmudgeon6 ай бұрын
Greetings from The Tolkien Curmudgeon: This was a great video. You touch on things I've been thinking about recently and I love seeing your first edition copy of "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" in your hand, too. Tolkien himself can be heard reading many of the poems from this volume by searching KZbin. It's great to hear Tolkien's voice and delivery.
@kgsuniquerareandantiquebooks6 ай бұрын
So much interesting Tolkien lore. Thanks for sharing!!
@emmahardesty43306 ай бұрын
Cool, appreciate your passion. Who doesn't completely love Tom Bombadil.
@pattiaufzack6 ай бұрын
I didn't know that this man has a youtube channel for longer videos. Just subscribed
@desmo750f15 ай бұрын
Thank you for this. I’ve enjoyed your shorts about books but this has made me decide to reopen Tolkien after a few decades.
@onthetrail5066 ай бұрын
Thanks for this video, Tom. Very enjoyable and informative. I will add a link to this video for our new JRRT Bibliography at TCG which I am working on this year. It will be a very good reference people can link to and enjoy.
@antonyreyn6 ай бұрын
Fun fact. The name Tolkien is contained within the name Thorkelin who was the first translator of Beowulf. Cheers from Mercia.
@MannyBrum5 ай бұрын
Another crazy coincidence is if you read the numbers in the ring poem backwards it tells the year Tolkien died.
@noahfenech33696 ай бұрын
Something I'm unsure of is the creation of Old Man Willow. I don't know of any sort of preexisting tree based folklore that's Tolkien would have been taking from, but the malicious mess of the trees and the willows in particular are very reminiscent of the Ash from Phantastes which I know you've mentioned before as being a massive inspiration for much of Tolkien's works.
@waynegoucher45035 ай бұрын
That was fascinating .. the character is an enigma and i'm quite happy that he and Goldberry remain so. I like to think that as 'Smith of Wooton Major' was able to venture into Faerie with the Fay star. Bombadil represents the 'Natural' world that links Middle Earth with this reality.
@thehelmsdepot6 ай бұрын
My favorite character! I always felt that he was a portrayal of Tolkien himself. Also, I forgot about Roverandom! Stumbled across it as a child at the library. Great story.
@umcaraqualquer36405 ай бұрын
Tolkien does actually have a character that portrays himself, and that is Faramir! He states so in one of his letters
@tomsmith85154 ай бұрын
Thank you for sharing all that you share
@missanne29086 ай бұрын
A bit off topic, but from what you describe Tolkien must have been a wonderful father. He could have been distant like many fathers of that era, but instead he really got involved in his children's lives. Without this trait we would have never gotten to experience _The Lord of the Rings_ since he originally wrote _The Hobbit_ as a bedtime story for his own kids.
@theepisofdiabolos-dj5xh6 ай бұрын
yes i love old tom bombadil
@rand0m5086 ай бұрын
The little tidbit that is going to stick with me is that we almost got Bullroarer Took's story. I would absolutely love a story with really low stakes, that to the hobbits feels like the craziest thing that ever happened.
@frankhooper78716 ай бұрын
I first read The Lord of the Rings around 1967 or 1968, when I was a high school student. I'm also pretty sure I read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil before reading The Hobbit - I still have my paperback of the latter somewhere around LOL. I've read and re-read LOTR multiple times...including once in its French translation...I think it's about time for another read-through. Oh, and I hated the fact that the Hobbits' visit to Tom was omitted in the films...and The Scouring of the Shire at the end.
@Kyle-g5u6 ай бұрын
The scouring of the shire wouldn't have fit in the movie, the climax was defeating sauron......adding tom bombadil to the movie would have led to more questions, which the book obviously did also, so yeah they should have added him just like the book
@Lin-17856 ай бұрын
I want to watch this again with a fireplace and a cocoa. A book story.
@geronimowatson.j.43595 ай бұрын
Woo.. that was very cool! Thanks for the story 👍
@RaymondTheThird6 ай бұрын
Really excellent, thank you
@alleycatw9l6416 ай бұрын
It sort of comes off as a joke when Elrond explains that Tom Bombadil predates the creation of middle earth and all things. Tolkien wrote about Tom Bombadil before creating the LOTR and nobody in the realm of middle earth can explain who or what he is because he predated the creation of the world (to them).
@latronqui6 ай бұрын
I like your interpretation
@umcaraqualquer36405 ай бұрын
That is the most literal interpretation of it, and I love it
@potterendergaming53356 ай бұрын
Oh goodness rings of power are doing tom bombadil i wonder just how badly they are going too eff this up. Also first time viewing this channel, its a real cool idea to track character creation through writings.
@thegreenmage69566 ай бұрын
Let me guess is he A BLACK GUY? A TRANS PERSON? Something so NOT LOTR? :D
@mrs.manrique74115 ай бұрын
RoP show runners said T. Bombadil doesn’t have main character energy, which is sad because Tolkien considered producing a story for him making him the central hero and less silly for children. (This information can be found in one of Tolkien’s published letters.) Bombadil also seems to be dressed as a rich country gentleman who owns an estated property, and at one time might have owned many large properties and took care of the forests. His description is reminiscent of a dandy…a gentleman who liked to dress up in bright/fine French colors. From what RoP seems to be trying to do, they cut down on the silly (jumping straight up to the ceiling in LoTR, for example, is cartoonish) but still kept him a side character while giving him multiple estates, even in the far east.
@teleriferchnyfain4 ай бұрын
Those showrunners are pure garbage who have defamed Tolkien & spit on his work.
@BobbyM8173 ай бұрын
@@teleriferchnyfainyou must hate the Jackson films.
@TheAdoringFan2 ай бұрын
After learning all of this, I think we do know who Tom is. He is Tolkiens childhood hero and he will always exist to Tolkien whether be it in middle earth or historical fiction. Where he came from in LOTR lore is relevant because he always has been in the mind of Tolkien
@parker25206 ай бұрын
Love Tom Bombadil. Alas, Prime's Rings of Power will stop at nothing to leave its scourge marks wherever it can on the Professor's great ouevre. "I look East, West, North, South, and I do not see Sauron; but I see that Saruman has many descendants. We Hobbits have against them no magic weapons. Yet, my gentlehobbits, I give you this toast: To the Hobbits. May they outlast the Sarumans and see spring again in the trees." --J.R.R. Tolkien
@JimKillock6 ай бұрын
"Bonheddig" is pronounced with dd as voiced th, like "this" or "that".
@Maurice-Navel6 ай бұрын
I remember as a child reading "Farmer Giles of Ham." I have no idea where this fits into the Tolkien oeuvre. Comments?
@tomwayling6 ай бұрын
I think I’ll cover Farmer Giles in a future video!
@dianacoles10176 ай бұрын
Oh good. It's one of the earliest books I remember. I used to pester my mother to talk like Garm.
@missanne29086 ай бұрын
I have an old paperback titled _Smith of Wootton Major & Farmer Giles of Ham._ If you like 'Farmer Giles of Ham' you really should try 'Smith of Wootton Major.' Both are great reads.
@gretcheningram21365 ай бұрын
I adore Tom Bombadil!
@morefiction32645 ай бұрын
He answered the question of who Tom is. He's the spirit of the vanishing Oxford countryside.
@lomion796 ай бұрын
Unfortunatley, your pronunciation of "Bonheddig" is off. But, as always, another fascinating video.
@itskarl75756 ай бұрын
Tom Bombadil's live action debut was in the 1991 Russian movie adaptation. Just saying.
@TheOtherSteel6 ай бұрын
What do you mean there are no theories of who is Tom Bombadil? He's either a Valar who went off on his own, either the equal or mightier than Manwe, or he's a manifestation of Eru himself. He doesn't engage in combat because he hates violence and knows his unleashed powers will damage Middle Earth along with Sauron.
@klausolekristiansen29606 ай бұрын
"The dark men out of Euskadi." Did this actually happen? Was there ever a Basque migration to Britain?
@eldadoverdethegreendice68936 ай бұрын
Dark men from Euskadi? Ok now my mind has completely blown out
@flamencoprof6 ай бұрын
He was a language scholar, after all.
@ARedFeather6 ай бұрын
Not me thinking I could easily produce works this great if I could only be only bothered to write stuff down 😅
@eely2256 ай бұрын
Hey Tom, thanks for the interesting video on a fellow Tom. Just my two cents: it’s a bit awkward for you to read out the chapter headings in your videos. It just sounds like awkward sentences as it runs up against your other narration. I think it would be better to just present the titles without narration and maybe include a short music segment there.
@NicholasproclaimerofMessiahАй бұрын
So Tom is an easter egg, a cameo, even a break of the fourth wall, and has no significant role in Middle Earth. Cool.
@--..-...-..-.--....6 ай бұрын
I love the idea of Tom, but i hated his placement in Lord of the Rings
@Avelinovski6 ай бұрын
Love your channel. As for "The Rings of Power", weeeell... Not so much, let's leave it at that.
@KajiKintsugi6 ай бұрын
Not gonna lie Bingo Baggins had me Rollin! Can you imagine?😂😂😂
@bethflores79546 ай бұрын
What are your predictions for the next video?
@PhantomHarlock786 ай бұрын
The next victim in Rings of Power.
@BadgerOfTheSea6 ай бұрын
It's ok, you just hate it because the internet tells you to. In twenty years the next generation will see it as a misunderstood classic just like the Star Wars prequels are with Gen Z. [this is the part you laugh like a moron instead of having an independent opinion]
@SonofSethoitae6 ай бұрын
@@BadgerOfTheSeaBut of course in this case, "having an independent opinion" means agreeing with you.
@Joker-fx6mh6 ай бұрын
@@BadgerOfTheSeasorry but rings of power has nothing to do with Tolkien’s work. Just because you say “I’m supposed to like it for what it is” is bs. It’s trash. But like it if you want, has nothing to do with tolkiens world period
@imwelshjesus4 ай бұрын
@@BadgerOfTheSea I have an independent opinion, RofP is complete and utter crap and once you grow up you will too.
@redwawst32586 ай бұрын
😊
@meanse6 ай бұрын
Great stuff… to bad the creators of the Rings of Power didn’t read any of the books that involve similar named characters in the same world they are failing to portray
@tombombadil666 ай бұрын
Well this is one way to make the rings of power look good...hoho goldberry.😂
@CristiNeagu6 ай бұрын
Sorry, but not even Tom Bombadil is enough to make me watch the absolute insult to Tolkien's memory that is The Rings of Power. It is an unmitigated dumpster fire. No, thanks. But on the matter of Tom Bombadil himself, this makes him seem sort of like a metacharacter in the Lord of the Rings. Sort of like he's above the story. Like he lives in this pocket universe, at the meeting point of all of Tolkien's stories, and the hobbits just come across this bridge. I know people have proposed that Tom is really Eru Illuvatar, but it seems to me that Tom might be even above Eru, as Eru is still confined to the Lord of the Rings universe, whereas Tom isn't.
@MrsShocoTaco6 ай бұрын
Agreed 100% Tom is one of my favorite carachters in my absolute favorite book. I hate what they did to his work. It's as if they read the book then, thought, "psh.. I can do better!" Then completely failed.
@roryoconnor89596 ай бұрын
Who else thinks Peter Jackson should play Tom Bombadil?
@thekingsdaughter42336 ай бұрын
Not me. 😬🤨
@anarion5086 ай бұрын
i hear rings of power i close the video.
@Sirius-me5zy3 ай бұрын
Many reckon tomare the most powerful
@eazygamer89745 ай бұрын
Tom Bombadil in rings of power is going to be so bad...absolute character assassination. The level of cringe in that show knows no limit.....hopefully they wont be able to call him tom bombadil do to rights issues that would be the one saving grace to this unmitigated disaster of show.
@Vates1046 ай бұрын
I’m interested in books which is why I subscribe to your channel. Maybe you could change the name of your channel to The Lord of the Rings Channel. 😐
@GLING175 ай бұрын
Isn't this guy a cutie?! He looks like a friendly Hobbit.
@PleaseNThankYou5 ай бұрын
They will F up Tom just like they F'd up Galadriel. I would rather have YOU read about him, to us.
@דודפוקס-ל6פ6 ай бұрын
So "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" is as opposed to the ur-hobbit Tom who lived above ground?
@arckocsog2536 ай бұрын
Your gesticulating is as if you were Italian
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@laurawilson.6 ай бұрын
@jelnnmorgan6 ай бұрын
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@jelnnmorgan6 ай бұрын
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@Joker-fx6mh6 ай бұрын
Please don’t bring up the rings of power. Such a disgrace to tolkiens world
@donaldscholand46176 ай бұрын
Tom Bombodil, in Rings of Power, won't sing, but I'd bet a nickel that he'll rapp non-stop (complete with beat-boxing). If lady Goldberry appears in the series at all, I predict that she'll be portrayed as a nagging, disrespectful girl-boss of color 'who don't need no man' and who keeps Tom around simply as a useful simp trapped in a eternal friend zone. Any bets?
@imwelshjesus4 ай бұрын
I'd bet you've never read a book.
@grey.78286 ай бұрын
Are they going to make him black, gay and a woman?
@kkupsky63216 ай бұрын
Oh no. Ring of power is gonna ruin Goldberry and Tom Bombadil? Oh no. Why??? Damn you bezos. Leave Bombadil alone…
@GoryWory5 ай бұрын
DISLIKE AND BLOCK for even mentining 'the rings of power' in affirmative way