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The Lord of the Rings cinematic achievement will never be overshadowed. The amount of love, care, and detail that Peter Jackson put into the Lord of the Rings trilogy is unmatched. Though many fans who are book purists, or those who have gone down the rabbit hole of lore, might be wondering, Where Was Tom Bombadil? The mysterious character from JRR Tolkiens original books was not in the films, but this was a conscious decisoin by Peter Jackson. But why exactly was Tom Bombadil cut from the Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies?
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Other people are going to complain about the absence of Tom Bombadil
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Sad, yes, but I mean, this could go on and on and on and on and on. Whether you're a book purist or you've only watched the movies
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you've heard of the name Tom Bombadil. Despite only appearing in a few short chapters at the start of Frodo's journey
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Bombadil has become as legendary in our world as he is in Middle-earth
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That legend largely comes from everything we don't know about him. Namely, who is he
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What is he? And most importantly, why was he left out of Peter Jackson's adaptations
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All right, then keep your secrets. If you're only vaguely familiar with Tolkien's work
0:35
you might be wondering why Tom Bombadil is such a big deal for fans
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You probably know him best as an ever-present meme, though he originated in one of Tolkien's poems from before the publication of The Lord of the Rings
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He has essentially become a mascot for the franchise and gets brought up in conversation
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whenever anyone talks about the differences between Jackson's rings and their source material
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Some people see his non-existence in the movies as a serious offense
1:00
Others are glad he never made it to the screen, and more still, would prefer to forget he exists completely
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No matter which side of the debate you're on, it's worth exploring why Jackson and his writing partners
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Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, decided to omit him. Luckily for us, Jackson actually addressed the matter
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in the DVD appendices for The Fellowship of the Ring. The plot of The Lord of the Rings in our movie in its most simple form
1:22
is Frodo carrying the ring. What does Tom Bombadil ultimately really have to do with the ring
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I know there's ring stuff in the Bombadil episode, but it's not really advancing our story
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and it's not really telling us things that we need to know. So that's what Jackson has to say about Tom Bombadil
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but is it accurate? Well, partially. It can't be denied that Tom Bombadil has major implications
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for the world of Middle-earth and the story Tolkien was telling. Whether those implications were necessary or even sensible
1:48
is another matter entirely, and they could only be judged by looking at his actions in the book Readers are first introduced to Tom Bombadil in the Old Forest chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring when he rescues Frodo and the other hobbits from the clutches of Old Man
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Willow, a sentient tree that tries to drown and smother them in their sleep
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Their journey may have ended there if not for Bombadil, who shows up singing a merry
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song and beats Old Man Willow with his own branches until he releases them
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From there, Bombadil invites the hobbits to his whimsical cottage in the Old Forest, where
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they meet his wife, Goldberry, the river daughter, who's described as looking like
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a fair young elf queen clad in living flowers. Altogether, Frodo and his friends spend three chapters with Bombadil and Goldberry, and
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every paragraph feels like a pleasantly bizarre fever dream. Their hosts appear more like benevolent woodland spirits than actual people, supplying the
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hobbits with ample food, rest, and song, while telling them vague and magical stories about
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themselves and the world around them. Fire off tales and children's stories, that's all that is
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You're beginning to sound like that old Bilbo Baggins. Even the house itself is a kind of safe haven from the evils of the world
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with an unseen barrier surrounding it and protecting those within. In one of the more pertinent moments, Frodo shows the one ring to Bombadil
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and instead of succumbing to its influence, he twirls the ring around his finger and performs a magic trick with it
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When Frodo dons the ring, Bombadil can still see him, which tells readers that he's totally immune to its powers
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Later, the hobbits get lost in an ancient graveyard called the Barrow Downs
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and are kidnapped by a wight. Bombadil once again comes to their rescue by banishing the White and lifting the spell they
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were under. He saves their lives and encourages them to take a treasure from the White's horde
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Each Hobbit selects a sword that they carry with them throughout their journey. From there
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Bombadil guides the Hobbits to the edge of his property, directs them to the Prancing Pony in
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Bree, and then returns home to his wife. And that's pretty much it. He gets brought up to the
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Council of Elrond to confirm what we already know. Bombadil is a strange and ancient being
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with immunity to the ring's power. But he, for whatever reason, won't help in the quest to destroy it
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I would use this ring from a desire to do good But through me it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine At the end of Return of the King we told Gandalf goes to visit him at his house
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We don't get any details of that meeting, and he's never mentioned again. So as you've probably
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noticed from some of the footage we've been using, Tom Bombadil into live action isn't an easy feat
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Very few productions have been brave enough to attempt it, with the 1991 teleplay from Russia
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and the nine-part Finnish adaptation from 1993 being the two most well-known
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With that in mind, the argument can be made that the Russian and Finnish adaptations
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are more faithful than Jackson's. But does following Tolkien's words to the letter make them a superior product
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Putting aside the stark difference in resources and the frankly hilarious costuming and effects
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the answer is obviously no. When putting a book on the screen, you have to make some concessions for the sake of the medium
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and streamlining the narrative is an expected part of the process. To put it lightly, Tom Bombadil is a mystery
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To put it more bluntly, he's almost totally nonsensical. His chapters feel oddly out of place
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even in the context of Tolkien's largely fantastical story. They're a strange, surreal stopover that cuts the tension of Frodo's mission
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and downplays the Threat of the Rings influence significantly. Not only is he incomprehensibly powerful
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but his house is basically a magical bunker. To make sense of Bombadil, fans have been theorizing about his true identity
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since 1954 when the book was first published. Since both Elrond and Gandalf are familiar with him
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some speculate that he's a wizard, or even the god of all things, Iru Iluvatar himself
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Another theory is that he's the spirit of music, which would certainly make sense given the number of songs
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Tolkien manages to fit into the few chapters we see him in. But what he is doesn't matter nearly as much as why he's there
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Thanks to the fellowship appendices, we know that Jackson doesn think Bombadil has much to do with the story What the appendices don tell us however is that Tolkien actually agreed with him In one of the letters of J Tolkien he said Bombadil is not an important person to the
6:00
narrative. I would not, however, have left him in if he did not have some kind of function. He goes
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on to talk about the war between good and evil, the struggle for power of the Lord of the Rings
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and how Bombadil represents a third perspective, that power and control to some are meaningless
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Essentially, Bombadil represents an ultimate pacifistic idea. He is unmoved by the ambitions and goals of the powerful
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and finds joy in the small pleasures in life like the natural world, good food, and a warm fire
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This is a worthwhile inclusion in theory, but in practice, it comes off as very frustrating
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There's already a character who represents many of these themes, and that's Sam
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Sam is the one who takes pleasure in things like using salt to season his food on the road to Mordor
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I thought maybe if we was having a roast chicken one night or something. Roast chicken
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You never know. And the one who just wants to get the job done and return to his simple life in the Shire
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And when it comes time to motivate Frodo on the steps of Mount Doom, his mind doesn't go to fame and glory, but to the taste of strawberries
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Moreover, Sam doesn't throw a wrench into the story by being a creature of untold strength of will and magical ability
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While Tom Bombadil is a merry addition to the book that provides readers with three eccentric chapters
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and more than a few iconic songs, it isn't hard to see why Jackson's team decided to leave him out of the movies
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His existence calls into question the entire plot of the story, prompts questions that never get answered
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and illustrates themes that are already addressed by existing characters. Still, his presence is a fairly contentious one among fans
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landing him at the number nine spot on Ranker's list of plot points that should have been in the movies
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However, those who desperately want to see the yellow-booted fellow up on screen
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will get their chance since he's set to make his debut on the second season of Amazon's Rings of Power
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While the show hasn't been a resounding success for some fans, maybe a little Bombadil is exactly what it needs