The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

This long poem (134 lines), the lead and eponymous poem of J.R.R. Tolkien's best-known collection of poetry, now available chiefly in the collection entitled The Tolkien Reader (New York: Ballantine, 1966), offers a number of points of interest to the student of poetry.

To my mind, chief among these is the overall structure of the piece. The poem is episodic, featuring an introduction of the main character, Tom Bombadil (lines 1-10), and then a series of encounters with increasingly dangerous adversaries: Goldberry (11-24a), Willow Man (27-41a), Badger-brock (51-68), and Barrow-wight (77-92). This is followed by a reversal of action, in which Tom successfully "woos" (some may read "rapes" -- at any rate marries) Goldberry (106-122) and a denouement or finale in which all the major characters of the poem are referenced again (123-137).

In each of the encounters, a strict formula is followed. Although the poem is not precisely a ballad, it has a strong ballad-like quality in the strong structuring of the episodes. In each, Bombadil is first confronted by some natural spirit: a spirit of water (Goldberry), a spirit of wood (Willow Man), a spirit of earth (Badger-brock), and a spirit of death (Barrow-wight). This, at any rate, is I think a plausible reading. Each of the first three spirits captures, and the fourth threatens to capture, Bombadil. Each spirit taunts Bombadil with an address beginning invariably with an aspirated vowel (hey, ha, ho, hoo, respectively): Tolkien certainly was aware of the mechanics of these vowels: each is "deeper" in the throat, and this relates to Bombadil's increasing danger. But Bombadil is more than equal to each of the threats; his voice alone is sufficient to effect his release and either the sleep or flight of his adversaries.

Before delving into the content in more detail, a few comments about the general structure of the poem are useful. As often, Tolkien builds on Anglo-Saxon tradition, but without slavish adherence either to A-S metrics or phonic structures. Here, he employs rhymed couplets (not a device of traditional Anglo-Saxon verse), but with what is essentially the Anglo-Saxon split line, often indicating the break with punctuation, as in line 5: "He lived up under Hill, where the Withywindle", or line 25 "swam young Goldberry. But Tom, he would not follow;" and not infrequently alliteration is present and apportioned in classic A-S style, as in line 2: "bright blue his jacket was and his boots were yellow."

Again, none of this is slavish or forced. The metre is free overall, but there are close parallels (not always exact equivalences) between the metres of the couplet lines, for example lines 1-6:

x x x - - x - x - x -
x x - x - - x - x - x -
x - - x - - - x - - - x -
x x - - x - - x - x -
x x - x - x x - x - x -
xx - x - xx- x- x-

To be continued...