How do you perceive Tom Bombadil?

[mark12_30]

:
Originally Posted by Aaron
I felt, for a change of pace, that we might talk about how we - as readers - see him, and our feelings towards such an unusual character?
An exquisite question.

My feelings: well, lately I ponder at length on Bombadil' s rhymes and songs, and find them amusing, and soothing, and comforting: reminding me about that moment at dinner in Bombadil' s house when the hobbits realize that they had been singing with as much ease as speaking. A good space to be in. Goldberry comforts me: nothing passes these doors but moonlight and Starlight. I envy the table they set. I enjoy Tom's sweeping daylong narrative, and Goldberry' s washing songs, and her waterlilies. And I wish I and my house were more like that: safe, nourishing, healing, freeing, with power to halt the dark spirits and banish them.

Get out, you old Wight. Vanish in the sunlight.

Fear nothing! For tonight you are in the house of Tom Bombadil.