An interesting exploration of a question that often pops up:
I left a comment to the video saying that the lady's interpretation of Tom sounded remarkably Taoist if Tom really is some sort of reification of stillness and naturalness—two signal Taoist qualities. The lady's interpretation of what is meant by Tom's being "Master of wood, water and hill" also sounds a bit like the Taoist understanding of mastery... but I may have to rewatch the video to see if that's really what the lady says.
One commenter to the video brings up the idea of Tom as a sort of genius loci, but writ large: not the spirit of a particular locale, but rather the spirit of Arda (the world) in its entirety. I don't know enough about Tom to say whether this interpretation works, but if it does, it makes Tom into a kind of super-sanshin (sanshin = mountain spirit).
Anyway, an interesting video for us non-experts.
That video has been in my recommendations for days now, but I have refused to click on it because of the click-baity "Everyone got it WRONG" thumbnail. I know that YTers are pretty much forced to play the click-bait game, but things like that still rub me the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteYou probably don't need to watch it because I'm sure you have your own ideas.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to be arrogant enough to believe that I've heard everything... but I would be surprised if this video brought anything new to the table, given everything I've already read in terms of Tom Bombadil theories.
ReplyDeleteI remember being disappointed that Tom Bombadil wasn't virtually ignored in the LOTR movies. He was one of my favorite characters in the books. No clue who he is, though. A Christ-like mother nature?
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