Tom Bombadil is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He first appeared in print in a 1934 poem called "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil", which also included The Lord of the Rings characters Goldberry, Old Man Willow and the Barrow-wight, from whom he rescues the hobbits. They were not then explicitly part of the older legends that became The Silmarillion, and are not mentioned in The Hobbit.
Tom Bombadil frees the Hobbits from Old Man Willow. Scraperboard illustration by Alexander Korotich, 1981
Scholars have debated Tom Bombadil's antecedents, beyond the Dutch doll of that name in Tolkien's childhood. Among the suggestions is that he was modelled on the demigod Väinämöinen from the Finnish epic poem Kalevala. Painting The Defense of the Sampo by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1896
Bombadil and Goldberry with the four hobbits made to look much smaller using a crude green-screen technique in the 1991 Russian television play Khraniteli
Bombadil as depicted in The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is a 1962 collection of poetry by J. R. R. Tolkien. The book contains 16 poems, two of which feature Tom Bombadil, a character encountered by Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. The rest of the poems are an assortment of bestiary verse and fairy tale rhyme. Three of the poems appear in The Lord of the Rings as well. The book is part of Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium.
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
