An Excellent Spirit: Tom Bombadil, Goldberry and the Showing of Enigmas

Daniel Côté Davis and Michael Organ

The role of the Holy Spirit in J.R.R. Tolkien's prophetic writing style is brought to the fore in The Lord of the Rings through the characterisation of Tom Bombadil and his ‘River-daughter’ wife Goldberry as an apotheosis of the Divine Energy that inspired his vision.

The dreams, visions, spiritual refreshment and charismatic gifts granted through their two enigmatic personas can be traced to biographic and narratival origin.

The case can be mounted that, as Tolkien himself noted of his masterpiece and through subsequent correspondence, they were formed by his Catholic unconscious and came to signify profound meaning and mystery.

Tolkien was reticent in expanding upon his initial characterisations, thereby giving rise to subsequent misunderstandings and misinterpretations by readers and within populist re-tellings.

Though Peter Jackson left Tom Bombadil and Goldberry out of his cinematic adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, their enigmatic presence in the original text can be argued to be of seminal importance to the flow of the narrative and the ultimate good success of the hobbits in their quest to save Middle-earth from insurmountable evil and against all odds.

The latter is achieved through the provision of grace, wisdom and personal empowerment.

The case for Tom Bombadil and Goldberry as providers of these gifts can be explicated with fidelity to Tolkien's creative process and all the excitement of spirited theological enquiry into the nature of the Logos (i.e., the Word of God) and its dealings with humanity.

We can also consider religious elements of Tolkien’s legendarium that were meaningfully masked within The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, thereby impacting upon our understanding of the origins and true nature of both Tom Bombadil and Goldberry.

These hidden elements include the presence of the Blessed Trinity as ‘the One’.

It can be argued that Tom Bombadil is a Middle-earth embodiment of the Holy Spirit, thereby revealing an association with the processes of creation and empowerment through the Flame Imperishable (also called the Secret Fire) and the Music of the Ainur.

It is suggested that, within The Lord of the Rings, Tom Bombadil is Master to the wizard Gandalf’s "servant of the Secret Fire".

Goldberry is likewise revealed as more than a simple water spirit, but rather, a reflection of the Old Testament personification of the Holy Spirit as the heavenly female divine power Lady Wisdom, co-creator with God.

Proverbs 8 and Ben Sirach 4 present her with Yahweh at the beginning of time and note her creation before all things, mirroring Tolkien’s written words in regard to the origin of Tom Bombadil, and within the context of the Blessed Trinity.

Together, Tom Bombadil and Goldberry reflect the duality of the earthly manifestation of the Holy Spirit throughout The Lord of the Rings.

This duality is shown to be a favourite in nuptial-mystical language within the Catholic tradition, taking the ordinary and raising it into the sublime through the sacramental imagination.

It is suggested that to Tolkien, Goldberry was both his beloved wife Edith and the Holy Spirit, through a Catholic unconscious where he also identified Tom Bombadil with the Holy Spirit and himself in relation to Edith.

To the Catholic mind, marriage is necessarily sacramental and a doorway to the Divine.

Therefore, a connection can be traced between Tolkien’s captivation with his wife and its unconscious sublimation into a representation of Divine Energy suffused with vibrant mystery, enigma, and gracious joy.

Those sentient beings who encounter Tom Bombadil and Goldberry in Arda, and feature within The Lord of the Rings, are forever changed by the encounter. The party of hobbits led by Frodo Baggins are exemplars.

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Last updated: 15 May 2020

Michael Organ, Australia

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An Excellent Spirit: Tom Bombadil, Goldberry and the Showing of Enigmas

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