A question for Tolkenistas...

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Gandalf as Gandalf/Mithrander is that old.  As the Maia Olorin, he is - literally - as old as creation.

Boru

Uh-oh... somebody's busting into Silmarillion shit.

Actually, it's from 'The Two Towers'.  When Faramir has Sam and Frodo at Amon Hen, he mentions that Gandalf told the people of Gondor, 'Olorin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten'. But (fair dues), a Maia called 'Olorin' does appear briefly in the Silmarillion.  Christopher Tolkien confirms that they are the same person in Lost Tales.

Boru, Assistant Managing Director of 'Nerds Backwards "R" Us'

[ignoramus]

I must say, as a paid up lifelong member 'Nerds Backwards "R" Us', it brings me comfort to know that upper management also practice what they preach...

[Aroura]

But only one group knows it's fiction ...  But I won't say who ...

Gandalf is real!

Tom Bombadil, on the other hand...

Tom Bombadil is not God, or his avatar.  Tolkien explicitly states this in an interview somewhere.
He's supposed to be an enigma, old as time. Tolkein outright refused to say what he was, only a few things that he wasn't.  I figure he maybe represents nature?  But as a kid when I first read LOTR and also The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, I too assumed he was God (or his avatar, though I didn't know that word at the time).

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Gandalf is real!

Tom Bombadil, on the other hand...

Tom Bombadil is not God, or his avatar.  Tolkien explicitly states this in an interview somewhere.
He's supposed to be an enigma, old as time. Tolkein outright refused to say what he was, only a few things that he wasn't.  I figure he maybe represents nature?  But as a kid when I first read LOTR and also The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, I too assumed he was God (or his avatar, though I didn't know that word at the time).

My own theory, with admittedly nothing to support it, is that Bombadil was a Vala 'gone native'.

Boru

[GUBU]

Gandalf is real!

Tom Bombadil, on the other hand...

Tom Bombadil is not God, or his avatar.  Tolkien explicitly states this in an interview somewhere.
He's supposed to be an enigma, old as time. Tolkein outright refused to say what he was, only a few things that he wasn't.  I figure he maybe represents nature?  But as a kid when I first read LOTR and also The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, I too assumed he was God (or his avatar, though I didn't know that word at the time).

No he's more like Janeway in that episode where she and Tom Paris get zapped about a year back in time, and she forbids him from stopping the natives inadvertently promoting themselves to glory (Pratchett reference FTW!). "I could stop the madness, but blind obedience to the rules is the only way" (yes, yes I know it's more "meh, I'm too lazy" with Bombadil).

I suppose it could have been worse, hecl could have pulled the Phlox Evolutionary Clause instead.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I've often felt that Bombadil's importance to the story is overlooked.  Without him, the hobbits would never have made it out of the Old Forest, and (even if they had) Merry wouldn't have had the Numemorean sword with which he wounded the Lord of The Nazgul. As a result, the Battle of the Pellenor Fields would have been lost, and Sauron's victory guaranteed.

Boru

[Gwaithmir]

I've often felt that Bombadil's importance to the story is overlooked.  Without him, the hobbits would never have made it out of the Old Forest, and (even if they had) Merry wouldn't have had the Numemorean sword with which he wounded the Lord of The Nazgul. As a result, the Battle of the Pellenor Fields would have been lost, and Sauron's victory guaranteed.

Boru

Tom Bombadil is featured in my story King Oak.
http://faerie-archive.com/viewstory.php?sid=1524