Who is Tom Bombadil, the "oldest man in Middle-earth," and why is his role key in 'The Lord of the Rings'?

After causing a huge stir when the presence of this character was announced in the second season of The Rings of Power, Tom Bombadil has finally made an appearance in this week's episode. Despite being an important character in J.R.R. Tolkien's universe, screen adaptations had not featured him yet, but the Prime Video series introduced him in the fourth episode of its second season.

For many years, Tom Bombadil (portrayed in the series by Rory Kinnear) has been a beloved character by Tolkien fans and considering he appears at key moments, his absence in the film adaptations of the work has been quite noticeable.

That's why many fans of the work may welcome his participation in The Rings of Power, where the first time we see him will be just before he takes part in a very special encounter.

Who is Tom Bombadil

Tom Bombadil

In J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo and company encounter this cheerful and childlike being as they traverse the Old Forest on their way to Rivendell. The Old Willow tries to swallow Merry and Pippin among its enormous trunks, and Bombadil saves the hobbits by singing to the tree to make them fall asleep.

The character was omitted in Peter Jackson's film trilogy, although Treebeard, the character played by John Rhys-Davies, uses some of Bombadil's lines in The Two Towers while talking to Merry and Pippin in the Fangorn forest.

He is a character of unknown origin who appears in Tolkien's works and projects a timeless wisdom. He often guides the characters so they can see things more clearly and helps them understand the world around them.

In the story and also in the Prime Video series, we will hear him say that he is as old as Middle-earth itself, and he also possesses wisdom far superior to others. Essential to the spirit of discovery and the quest for meaning, Bombadil is known for wearing yellow boots, a blue jacket, and a feathered hat, and for his enigmatic expressions in verse.

The character in 'The Rings of Power'

Tom Bombadil

The showrunners of The Rings of Power, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, have made a slight adjustment to the character in the second season, giving him a second home in the outskirts of Rhûn -home of the Easterlings, whose army was seen entering the Black Gate of Mordor by Frodo, Sam, and Gollum in The Two Towers from Jackson-.

"In our story, Tom has gone to the lands of Rhûn, which as we know used to be Edenic, green, and beautiful, but now are a kind of dead wasteland," explained Payne in an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair.

"Tom is whimsical and magical, almost bordering on silliness," McKay adds. "But he also has the wisdom of experience and the music of the spheres and the deep emotional wells of ancient history and myth, and his conception and function are linked to Norse myths with deep roots in European fairy tales."

For his part, Payne adds: "Strangely, he is somewhat the most Lord of the Rings in The Lord of the Rings. Tom is a kind of curiosity within that structure because, while he is darker, Tom Bombadil sings and says verses that could be rhymes from children's poems. He defies the tone shift of the rest of the season and is a true beacon of light in the midst of a sea of darkness."

Kinnear expressed gratitude for the opportunity to step into the famous yellow boots and explained that although the description of Tom Bombadil is familiar to readers, he loved having the chance to portray the voice and gestures of the enigmatic character for the first time in a live-action adaptation of Tolkien's work.

"There is a sense of tremendous experience, enormous candor, enormous empathy, and of having gone through so much that (Bombadil) knows that the important things are the small things. That seemed quite achievable in terms of my understanding of who he was."

*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence