Book 1, Chapter 6: The Old Forest

The Hall of Fire's extended chapter by chapter discussion of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
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The Tall Hobbit
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Re: Book 1, Chapter 6: The Old Forest

Post by The Tall Hobbit »

ArathornJax wrote:"Tolkien suggests that the two Bombadil poems were written by hobbits in Buckland, and show that the Bucklanders knew Bombadil, though, no doubt, they had as little understanding of his powers as the Shire-Folk had of Gandalf's: both were regarded as benevolent persons, mysterious maybe and unpredictable but nonetheless comic."
Just a quick side note that in addition to the two fairly well known Bombadil poems included in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ("The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" and "Bombadil goes Boating"), Tolkien also produced a much less well known poem about Tom and Goldberry called "Once upon a time" which was pubished in 1965 as part of a collection called "Winter's Tales for Children"edited by Caroline Hillier .

For those who have never encountered this work (which is long out of print), a copy of the poem can be found at the Tolkien Gateway web site: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Once_upon_a_time
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Voronwë the Faithful
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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Thanks, Tall One.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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Lalaith
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Post by Lalaith »

That's a neat poem, Tall Hobbit.
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Morwenna
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Post by Morwenna »

Something occurred to me about the hobbits' awareness of Tom. Some seem to know him, according to "Adventures," but Merry the ever-inquisitive seems not to have heard of him before! Glitch, perhaps? Can anyone rationalize this?
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