???
“Real world” answer is that he was a character he used to tell his kids bedtime stories about (also possibly the name of one of their dolls) many years before the Lord of the Rings.
Fantasy answer is much more complicated and unclear, try searching the archives, it’s been done here many, many, many times.
Meet my chick, she name Hashberry 
Got to go now as rush is coming
ohwowowowowowow "£%&%£%%%%%%%
I mean @£@@$%%&&&^@$$£
He was a very interesting character in the book Lord of the Rings. He was not included in the movie for some reason.
He was interesting because he had a connection with nature, was immortal (or dang close to it), and he could see Frodo when he was invisible. He lived in a forest with his wife (?) and saved Frodo, merry, pippin, and sam’s butts from trees that were trying to devour them.
I gathered all this from reading the book. Peter Jackson did not include Tom Bombadil in the film because it would of taken way too long without advancing the plot.
I see. I think I misinterpreted your question.
The answer to your question is:
I haven’t the foggiest…
I always thought that Tom Bombadil was a deity of some sort, either a nature deity, or possibly GOD himself.
Leaving Tim Benzadrine out of the movie was a huge mistake…
I got the feeling too. I don’t think he was God though (if their was only one). Who would his wife have been?
I don’t know why, but I always though of Bombadil when I read dragonlance (Fizban).
Tom Bombadil just is.
What a neat topic for a thread. I’m really surprised we have never had a thread on this subject before, or even this week.
Evidence that someone was in need of a good editor.
Marc
Could he be the Tulkas, one of the Valar?
Sound familiar?
Some good points, but I still think that descriptions sounds pretty close. Maybe some kind of fallen (from power, not from good) valar?
“Within the Tolkien household Tom Bombadil was originally a Dutch doll belonging to one of Tolkien’s children (Carpenter, Tolkien, p. 162; Grotta-Rurska, Tolkien, p. 101). Tolkien later wrote a poem about him called “The Adventures of Tom Bombadil,” published in Oxford Magazine in 1934, long before the writing of the Lord of the Rings began. When Tolkien decided to introduce Tom into the trilogy, little needed to be changed about him or his poem except for the feather in his hat - changed from peacock to swan-wing, since peacocks do not live in Middle-earth (Tolkien, Letters, pp. 318-19).”
Tim, Tim, Benzdrine,
Hash, boo, Valvoline,
Clean, clean, clean for Gene!
First, second, neutral, park,
Hie thee hence, you leafy narc!
And his ode to Hashberry is a thing of beauty.
I always thought that Tom B was something like the embodiment of song. As such, he both in nature and above/separate from nature.
Tom is a riddle without an answer, and every answer is correct. Except this one.
I’ve actually become to lazy to open the book, but he says something to the effect of, “Haven’t you guessed my name? What is your name when you’re alone?”
I think Bombadil originated as a private thing between Tolkien and his children but became a way for the author to invite readers to participate in the fantasy. In his letters and other writings, Tolkien spelled out the past and future of many of his characters in obsessive detail, but deliberately left Tom undefined as a challenge to the reader. It worked.
“Hop a hill, pop a pill, for good Tim Benzadrino!”
I must admit, I didn’t mind his absence from the film.