Rory Kinnear as Tom Bombadil in The Rings of Power, Season Two Posted by Ross Ferguson_Prime Video
At the beginning of The Lord of the Rings J. R. R. Tolkien's author breaks down and deviates from the script. Frodo and his hobbit friends left the Shire, holding the Ring of Sauron in their hands, the Black Riders following on their heels. A grand adventure awaits them. But then, in the ancient forests just beyond the borders of hobbit civilization, Tolkien does something unexpected: he introduces us to the deeply mysterious Tom Bombadil.
“He had a blue coat and a long brown beard,” is how Tolkien introduces Tom Bombadil in the sixth chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of The Lord of the Rings. “His eyes were blue and bright, and his face was as red as a ripe apple, but covered with a hundred wrinkles from laughter.”
Bombadil is an agent of chaos included in Tolkien's elaborate fantasy masterpiece. Ruler of the Old Forest between the Shire and the city of Bree, he saves the hobbits twice and then leaves, never to interfere with history again. Later, when asked about Bombadil, the Elven Lord Elrond called him as he saw him, simply saying, «He is a strange creature.»
Strange, but at the same time always mysterious and elusive. No one has ever fully understood Bombadil or explained what exactly he does in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien himself spoke of old Tom with his yellow boots and blue jacket.
“Even in a mythical era, as always, there must be some mysteries,” he wrote. «Tom Bombadil is one of them (intentionally).»
Given Tolkien's lack of clarity regarding Bombadil, it is not surprising that adaptations of his works have remained quite clear. He is not in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. He also does not appear in the BBC's 1981 audio retelling of the novels (script approved by Tolkien's son Christopher) or in Ralph Bakshi's surreal 1978 animated film The Lord of the Rings.
But – call don-dillo! (as Tom sings in the book) — Bombadil is now coming to the screen thanks to the second season of Prime Video's controversial Lord of the Rings prequel series, which is reportedly priced at $1 billion. «Tom Bombadil finally enters the rings of power,» read the headline of Vanity Fair, which published exclusive images of Rory Kinnear in Tom's iconic blue coat and shabby hat (the images are grainy, so it's hard to tell if his boots are yellow, according to Tolkien's instructions ).
Describing Tom as «a man who lives in the woods with an ethereal appearance and a penchant for meaningless songs and flamboyant clothing,» Vanity Fair said the showrunners of Rings of Power, which returns in August, have approached character as a “narrative mystery.” decide.”
«It doesn't have a clear dramatic function that would justify its inclusion in a really great film adaptation,» said Patrick McKay, one of the co-creators of «The Ring of Power.» “It's whimsical and magical and almost borders on silly. But it also has the wisdom of the ages, the music of the spheres and the deep emotional wells of ancient history and myth, and its concept and function are related to Norse myths and have deep roots in European fairy tales.
“Oddly enough, he’s the very “Lord of the Rings” in “The Lord of the Rings,” and also the first thing you’d cut if you were adapting it as a film. But we have the advantage of a television show, and so we're going to find a way to tap into that.»
Morfydd Clarke as Galadriel in film «Rings of Power» Credit: Provided by Prime Video
Tolkien purists will obviously be hoping Amazon does Tom justice. They may also fear the worst. The first series of The Rings of Power was widely derided for its absurd take on Middle-earth, including the random appearance of the Dark Lord Sauron on a raft disguised as a rough and ready criminal and his wandering proto-hobbits who spoke crudely. 19th-century caricatures of the Irish (their rags and dirty faces appear to have been inspired not by Tolkien but by images of the starving masses during the Great Famine).
Jackson's Lord of the Rings sequel was always going to be a challenge. However, Rings of Power was a huge disappointment that deserved to be thrown into the nearest volcano. It had the veneer of a Marvel film and was bewildered by a script that relied comically on coincidences.
For example, the fateful early meeting between the Elven-queen Galadriel (Morfydd Clarke) and Sauron occurs only after Galadriel impulsively decides to jump overboard from her Elven ship and sail back to Middle-earth. Along the way, she is caught in a storm and is rescued by a raft whose passengers include a disguised Sauron. Obviously, Sauron is no fool — although he was fairly easy to outsmart in The Lord of the Rings — but how could he predict Galadriel's location? Did he use a fantastic GPS?
Despite all the millions poured into production, Rings of Power also looked shoddy and cheap — especially compared to the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, which also aired its first season at the same time (and is returning again this summer ). . The difference between them was expressed in the contrasting depiction of female power. In Rings of Power, Galadriel demonstrates her toughness by beating up a group of soldiers in Númenor (by training them). In House of the Dragon, Alicent Hightower signals her break with her Targaryen relatives by appearing at her stepdaughter's wedding wearing a green dress—the historical battlefield colors of House Hightower. She orders her bannermen to prepare for war, a gesture of defiance that hits much harder than «Boss Girl» Galadriel attacking some of her brothers.
Two years later, with the second series of Rings of Power fast approaching, Tolkien fans are not optimistic about Bombadil's potential portrayal.
“If there's one thing they shouldn't touch, it's Tom,” wrote one online discussion forum on Reddit. «I even like that Jackson left him out of the films because it would have been very difficult to try to portray this character without making fun of him.»
Of course, there are questions to be asked about the casting of Rory Kinnear. He's a talented actor, but Roy Kinnear's privately educated son generally excels as the friendly schoolboy, playing the Prime Minister in the notorious «pig» Black Mirror episode «National Anthem» and playing PR director David Cameron Craig Oliver. on Channel 4's Brexit: The Uncivil War. Does he have the makings of a mustachioed woodland man?
Readers of The Lord of the Rings have always had strong feelings for Bombadil, despite his fleeting presence in the book. He appears in the chapter «The Old Forest», just at the moment when the hobbits are overcome by Old Man Willow, the primeval forest spirit, who puts them to sleep and tries to drag them underground.
Having defeated the evil willow, Tom brings Frodo and friends to his home in the forest, where they meet his wife, «Daughter of the River» Goldberry. Here they are surprised to discover that Tom is immune to the effects of the One Ring. He can still see Frodo when he puts on the cursed gold bracelet, which supposedly makes the wearer invisible, and when Tom wields the Ring, it does not disappear. Later, when the hobbits are attacked by the zombie-like Wights of Barrow, Tom rescues them again before sending them to the village of Bree where they are to meet Gandalf.
Ian McKellen as Gandalf in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Photo: Christophel Collection/Alamy Stock Photo
In the story, Tom is a distraction. He plays no real role in the hobbits' journey from the Shire to Elrond's fortress at Rivendell. Nothing he says or does has any lasting impact on the story. Moreover, the chapters in which he is introduced have a dreamy quality, completely different in tone from the rest of The Lord of the Rings.
“Tom is, of course, an amazing character, but he is also one of the most unusual and sometimes even controversial characters in fandom. There are longtime fans of the books who admit to skipping his chapters—and of course, there are almost as many «fan theories» about who he is as there are fans, says Alan Sisto, Tolkien expert and co-author. -host of the Prancing Pony podcast.
“I think it’s his uniqueness that makes such an impression on readers: he’s completely unaffected by the Ring, which is surprising at the time we meet him, but not entirely out of the question. But when you finish the books and remember Tom, you realize how different he is from the others.»
As Sisto says, not every reader is a fan. He arrives just as The Lord of the Rings is picking up steam. Gandalf is missing, the Ringwraiths have come to the Shire, Frodo and his gang leave their comfortable existence for a journey into the unknown. And then Tolkien suddenly drives up and brings us a cheerful guy in yellow shoes, who communicates mainly through songs. And there's a lot of singing there. For example, when Tom fights the evil willow tree that is devouring the hobbits, he does so with the help of impromptu trills. “Poor old Iva, you are hiding your roots!” he iodizes. “Tom is in a hurry now, Evening will follow the day.” It's Game of Thrones and Glee!
«His character — and especially the fact that the ring has no effect on him — is interesting, but the songs are completely unnecessary to the story and are just annoying,» one Tolkien fan noted on Reddit. After listening to Andy Serkis (Gollum in the movies) read the Lord of the Rings audiobook, another went further in regards to the Bombadil chapters. “I’m going to stick a pencil in my ears now!” I'm having a damn hard time understanding his nonsense.»
Tolkien never figured out who Bombadil was. Author: Heywood Magee
Tom predates The Lord of the Rings by decades. He originally appeared in Tolkien's 1934 poem «The Adventures of Tom Bombadil», where, foreshadowing lines spoken by Tom himself in The Fellowship of the Ring, he is described as «a merry fellow… his jacket was bright blue and his boots yellow.»
When Tolkien sat down to write The Lord of the Rings, he decided that Bombadil would play a major role at the beginning of the book. “I don’t think Tom needs to philosophize and won’t be any the better for it,” he wrote. “But many found it a strange or even controversial ingredient. Historically, I placed it because I had already “invented” it myself and wanted an “adventure” along the way [to Rivendell].”
At first, he wanted to write a full-length novel about Tom Bombadil. After The Hobbit became a surprise bestseller, his publishers begged him for a sequel. He replied that he was fed up with hobbits. What about a volume about Tom? «I can't think of any more hobbit stories, so what if I wrote a book about Tom Bombadil instead?» he wrote.
In the end he was persuaded to stay with the little people. But he still brought Tom back. In doing so, he introduced a touch of mystery to The Lord of the Rings that has captivated readers ever since. Who is Tom and what is he doing, stomping around Middle-earth in his yellow boots?
Rory Kinnear as Tom Bombadil. : Prime Video
There are many theories, but few of them stand up to scrutiny. First, Tom is a manifestation of Tolkien's god, Eru. This is a valid argument — Tom calls himself «the elder» and says he remembers «the first drop of rain» — but Tolkien categorically ruled it out.
Others suspect that Tom is one of the Valar, archangel-like beings created by Eru who interfere directly in the affairs of men and elves. Additionally, there is the idea that he is the equal of the wizards Gandalf and Saruman — although this idea is undermined by the fact that, unlike them, he is not affected by the Ring of Sauron. There is also a meta-theory that he symbolizes Tolkien himself — briefly leafing through his book and then leaving the scene.
Tolkien himself never fully understood what Tom was doing in the novel. The closest he came to explaining Tom was to suggest that he was in The Lord of the Rings to signify the vastness and ancient nature of Middle-earth — a reminder that there is more to the world than hobbits, Dark Lords and yearning for the rings. That Middle-earth should be vast and mysterious was always one of Tolkien's great ambitions. He believed it was important that the edges of his maps always remain unexplored.
“Part of the appeal of The L.R. I think it has to do with the glimpses of greater history in the background: an appeal similar to the spectacle of a distant uncharted island or the sight of the towers of a distant city shining in the sunny mist. To go there would be to ruin the magic, unless new unattainable prospects open up again,” he said.
Bombadil, for Tolkien, was the embodiment of the elusive quality of Middle-earth. “Tom Bombadil is who he is,” he wrote. “Just a strange “fact” of this world. It will not be explained, because as long as you (as in this tale must be so) are focused on the Ring, it is inexplicable. But here it is, a reminder of the truth (as I see it) that the world is so big and diverse that if you take one facet and focus your mind and heart on it, there will always be something that does not make it into the story. argument/approach, and seems to belong to a larger story.»
Bombadil symbolizes the wider mystery of Middle-earth. Television footage
Then he is a simple character with a lot of complexity. Can Amazon do Tom justice? Some experts doubt the possibility of exposing it to the light. “I was not at all surprised to see Tom Bombadil cut from the Peter Jackson movie,” said Corey Olsen, host of the Tolkien Professor podcast, in a 2009 episode dedicated to Bombadil.
“I remember when I first heard that The Fellowship of the Ring was coming out… the very first thing that came to my mind was, ‘Well, obviously he’s going to kill Tom Bombadil.’ And of course he did. I can’t imagine how that could have been left in the film. It would have been terrible if someone had tried to portray Tom Bombadil in a film. Can you imagine what Tom Bombadil would look like if you actually cast, dressed, and scripted someone on screen exactly as Tolkien describes Tom Bombadil in the book? The guy would look like an idiot.”
Some might argue that if Tom looked like an idiot, he would have fit perfectly into the Tolkien-parody universe of The Lord of the Rings. But many Lord of the Rings readers will feel that Tom Bombadil was left out of previous adaptations for good reason. He is unknowable and unknowable, an anarchic force injected into Middle-earth and allowed to roam freely. Trying to tie him down and turn him into drunkard fodder would be yet another insult to a series that has laughed in the faces of Tolkien fans too often.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Returns to Amazon Prime Video in August
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