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Copyright HarperCollinsPublishers 77–85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, London W6 8JB www.tolkien.co.uk Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2014 First published by George Allen & Unwin 1962 Copyright © The Tolkien Estate Limited 1962, 2014 Illustrations copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers 1962 Further copyright notices appear here and ‘Tolkien’® are registered trade marks of The Tolkien Estate Limited A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 97800057271 Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780007584697 Version: 2014-09-12
CONTENTS Cover Title Page Copyright Introduction Preface 1. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil 2. Bombadil Goes Boating 3. Errantry 4. Princess Mee 5. The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late 6. The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon 7. The Stone Troll 8. Perry-the-Winkle 9. The Mewlips 10. Oliphaunt 11. Fastitocalon 12. Cat 13. Shadow-Bride 14. The Hoard 15. The Sea-Bell 16. The Last Ship Commentary Preface The Adventures of Tom Bombadil Bombadil Goes Boating Errantry Princess Mee The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon The Stone Troll Perry-the-Winkle
The Mewlips Oliphaunt Fastitocalon Cat Shadow-Bride The Hoard The Sea-Bell The Last Ship Gallery Appendix I. Tom Bombadil: A Prose Fragment II. Once upon a Time and An Evening in Tavrobel Footnotes Bibliography Copyright Notices Works by J.R.R. Tolkien About the Publisher
INTRODUCTION
In the first part of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin are crossing the Old Forest when they are attacked by the malevolent Old Man Willow. By good fortune, they are rescued by Tom Bombadil, ‘a man, or so it seemed’, singing nonsense and wearing ‘an old battered hat with a tall crown and a long blue feather stuck in the band’ and ‘stumping along with great yellow boots on his thick legs. … He had a blue coat and a long brown beard; his eyes were blue and bright, and his face was red as a ripe apple, but creased into a hundred wrinkles of laughter’ (bk. I, ch. 6). To the hobbits he is a saviour but a puzzle. When Frodo asks Goldberry, ‘who is Tom Bombadil?’ she replies simply, ‘He is’ – he, who at that moment is tending the hobbits’ ponies and can be heard singing Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow; Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. At this, Frodo looks at Goldberry ‘questioningly’, and she adds: ‘He is, as you have seen him. He is the Master of wood, water, and hill.’ Later, when Frodo asks Tom himself, ‘Who are you, Master?’ the reply is: ‘Don’t you know my name yet? That’s the only answer.’ But he too elaborates, referring to the wider mythology, or ‘matter of Middle-earth’, which underlies The Lord of the Rings: ‘Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People [Men and Elves], and saw the little People [Hobbits] arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent’ (bk. I, ch. 7). One reader of The Lord of the Rings, Peter Hastings, felt that Goldberry’s ‘He is’ implied that Tom Bombadil is God. Tolkien disagreed: ‘Goldberry and Tom are referring to the mystery of names. … Frodo has asked not “what is Tom Bombadil” but “Who is h