Why didn't Tom Bombadil take the Ring to Mordor? [duplicate]












2
















This question already has an answer here:




  • Could Tom Bombadil have defeated Sauron?

    5 answers



  • Why was Tom Bombadil so unconcerned about the fate of Middle-earth?

    6 answers




He was certainly more resistant to the Ring than any other character in The Lord of the Rings. He could have handled the Ring with greater ease throughout the journey, especially in Mordor, as compared to Frodo.



Does this idea not come to anyone's mind or is there some deeper reason?










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marked as duplicate by Valorum, Mat Cauthon, Edlothiad, TheLethalCarrot, Loki 20 hours ago


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.











  • 1





    I wish people spent as much time answering the question as they did searching for questions that vaguely resemble it. This is really the worst part of SF&F and why I rarely bother anymore. Is there an actual dupe of the question 'why not have Bombadil take the Ring to Mordor'?

    – Shamshiel
    21 hours ago








  • 1





    Perhaps because Bombadil is evil? km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html

    – Ernest Friedman-Hill
    21 hours ago
















2
















This question already has an answer here:




  • Could Tom Bombadil have defeated Sauron?

    5 answers



  • Why was Tom Bombadil so unconcerned about the fate of Middle-earth?

    6 answers




He was certainly more resistant to the Ring than any other character in The Lord of the Rings. He could have handled the Ring with greater ease throughout the journey, especially in Mordor, as compared to Frodo.



Does this idea not come to anyone's mind or is there some deeper reason?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nischay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











marked as duplicate by Valorum, Mat Cauthon, Edlothiad, TheLethalCarrot, Loki 20 hours ago


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.











  • 1





    I wish people spent as much time answering the question as they did searching for questions that vaguely resemble it. This is really the worst part of SF&F and why I rarely bother anymore. Is there an actual dupe of the question 'why not have Bombadil take the Ring to Mordor'?

    – Shamshiel
    21 hours ago








  • 1





    Perhaps because Bombadil is evil? km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html

    – Ernest Friedman-Hill
    21 hours ago














2












2








2


0







This question already has an answer here:




  • Could Tom Bombadil have defeated Sauron?

    5 answers



  • Why was Tom Bombadil so unconcerned about the fate of Middle-earth?

    6 answers




He was certainly more resistant to the Ring than any other character in The Lord of the Rings. He could have handled the Ring with greater ease throughout the journey, especially in Mordor, as compared to Frodo.



Does this idea not come to anyone's mind or is there some deeper reason?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nischay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.













This question already has an answer here:




  • Could Tom Bombadil have defeated Sauron?

    5 answers



  • Why was Tom Bombadil so unconcerned about the fate of Middle-earth?

    6 answers




He was certainly more resistant to the Ring than any other character in The Lord of the Rings. He could have handled the Ring with greater ease throughout the journey, especially in Mordor, as compared to Frodo.



Does this idea not come to anyone's mind or is there some deeper reason?





This question already has an answer here:




  • Could Tom Bombadil have defeated Sauron?

    5 answers



  • Why was Tom Bombadil so unconcerned about the fate of Middle-earth?

    6 answers








tolkiens-legendarium the-lord-of-the-rings






share|improve this question









New contributor




Nischay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question









New contributor




Nischay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 21 hours ago









Mat Cauthon

16.8k484134




16.8k484134






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Nischay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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asked 22 hours ago









NischayNischay

112




112




New contributor




Nischay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





Nischay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Nischay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.




marked as duplicate by Valorum, Mat Cauthon, Edlothiad, TheLethalCarrot, Loki 20 hours ago


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.






marked as duplicate by Valorum, Mat Cauthon, Edlothiad, TheLethalCarrot, Loki 20 hours ago


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.










  • 1





    I wish people spent as much time answering the question as they did searching for questions that vaguely resemble it. This is really the worst part of SF&F and why I rarely bother anymore. Is there an actual dupe of the question 'why not have Bombadil take the Ring to Mordor'?

    – Shamshiel
    21 hours ago








  • 1





    Perhaps because Bombadil is evil? km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html

    – Ernest Friedman-Hill
    21 hours ago














  • 1





    I wish people spent as much time answering the question as they did searching for questions that vaguely resemble it. This is really the worst part of SF&F and why I rarely bother anymore. Is there an actual dupe of the question 'why not have Bombadil take the Ring to Mordor'?

    – Shamshiel
    21 hours ago








  • 1





    Perhaps because Bombadil is evil? km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html

    – Ernest Friedman-Hill
    21 hours ago








1




1





I wish people spent as much time answering the question as they did searching for questions that vaguely resemble it. This is really the worst part of SF&F and why I rarely bother anymore. Is there an actual dupe of the question 'why not have Bombadil take the Ring to Mordor'?

– Shamshiel
21 hours ago







I wish people spent as much time answering the question as they did searching for questions that vaguely resemble it. This is really the worst part of SF&F and why I rarely bother anymore. Is there an actual dupe of the question 'why not have Bombadil take the Ring to Mordor'?

– Shamshiel
21 hours ago






1




1





Perhaps because Bombadil is evil? km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html

– Ernest Friedman-Hill
21 hours ago





Perhaps because Bombadil is evil? km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html

– Ernest Friedman-Hill
21 hours ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















6














The Council of Elrond discusses asking Bombadil to help:




[Elrond]: But I had forgotten Bombadil, if indeed this is still the same that walked the woods and hills long ago, and even then was older than the old. That was not then his name. Iarwain Ben-adar we called him, oldest and fatherless. But many another name he has since been given by other folk: Forn by the Dwarves, Orald by Northern Men, and other names beside. He is a strange creature, but maybe I should have summoned him to our Council.'



'He would not have come,' said Gandalf.



'Could we not still send messages to him and obtain his help?' asked Erestor. 'It seems that he has a power even over the Ring.'



'No, I should not put it so,' said Gandalf. 'Say rather that the Ring has no power over him. He is his own master. But he cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break its power over others. And now he is withdrawn into a little land, within bounds that he has set, though none can see them, waiting perhaps for a change of days, and he will not step beyond them.'



'But within those bounds nothing seems to dismay him,' said Erestor. 'Would he not take the Ring and keep it there, for ever harmless?'



'No,' said Gandalf, 'not willingly. He might do so, if all the free folk of the world begged him, but he would not understand the need. And if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian; and that alone is answer enough.'




He would neither venture from his land nor be reliable enough to carry the Ring to Mordor. Gandalf says that, if asked, he would not have even come to Rivendell. But if begged, he might have taken the Ring to hold, but "if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away." He just doesn't care about the Ring and Sauron the way everyone else does, and he can't be made to.




I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. But if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless. It is a natural pacifist view, which always arises in the mind when there is a war.



The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien 144: To Naomi Mitchison. April 1954




If he wouldn't travel outside his land to come to Rivendell, and if he would forget the Ring or throw it away if he had it -- the Ring that was trying to return to Sauron -- could he have possibly been persuaded to go to Mordor or trusted to complete the mission?



Bombadil could not have done it.






share|improve this answer





















  • 1





    May be worth adding Tolkien's comment about him being wholly an observer, free from all desire of power etc. which made him mostly uninterested in the Quest.

    – Shamshiel
    22 hours ago











  • @Shamshiel Good idea. I remember something like that comment, but I can't recall from where. II'll look for it, but if you can find it, edit and answer to include it and I'll approve the edit.

    – Mark Olson
    21 hours ago











  • Yet Bombadil seems to have power over Old Man Willow.

    – Anton Sherwood
    6 hours ago


















1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









6














The Council of Elrond discusses asking Bombadil to help:




[Elrond]: But I had forgotten Bombadil, if indeed this is still the same that walked the woods and hills long ago, and even then was older than the old. That was not then his name. Iarwain Ben-adar we called him, oldest and fatherless. But many another name he has since been given by other folk: Forn by the Dwarves, Orald by Northern Men, and other names beside. He is a strange creature, but maybe I should have summoned him to our Council.'



'He would not have come,' said Gandalf.



'Could we not still send messages to him and obtain his help?' asked Erestor. 'It seems that he has a power even over the Ring.'



'No, I should not put it so,' said Gandalf. 'Say rather that the Ring has no power over him. He is his own master. But he cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break its power over others. And now he is withdrawn into a little land, within bounds that he has set, though none can see them, waiting perhaps for a change of days, and he will not step beyond them.'



'But within those bounds nothing seems to dismay him,' said Erestor. 'Would he not take the Ring and keep it there, for ever harmless?'



'No,' said Gandalf, 'not willingly. He might do so, if all the free folk of the world begged him, but he would not understand the need. And if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian; and that alone is answer enough.'




He would neither venture from his land nor be reliable enough to carry the Ring to Mordor. Gandalf says that, if asked, he would not have even come to Rivendell. But if begged, he might have taken the Ring to hold, but "if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away." He just doesn't care about the Ring and Sauron the way everyone else does, and he can't be made to.




I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. But if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless. It is a natural pacifist view, which always arises in the mind when there is a war.



The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien 144: To Naomi Mitchison. April 1954




If he wouldn't travel outside his land to come to Rivendell, and if he would forget the Ring or throw it away if he had it -- the Ring that was trying to return to Sauron -- could he have possibly been persuaded to go to Mordor or trusted to complete the mission?



Bombadil could not have done it.






share|improve this answer





















  • 1





    May be worth adding Tolkien's comment about him being wholly an observer, free from all desire of power etc. which made him mostly uninterested in the Quest.

    – Shamshiel
    22 hours ago











  • @Shamshiel Good idea. I remember something like that comment, but I can't recall from where. II'll look for it, but if you can find it, edit and answer to include it and I'll approve the edit.

    – Mark Olson
    21 hours ago











  • Yet Bombadil seems to have power over Old Man Willow.

    – Anton Sherwood
    6 hours ago
















6














The Council of Elrond discusses asking Bombadil to help:




[Elrond]: But I had forgotten Bombadil, if indeed this is still the same that walked the woods and hills long ago, and even then was older than the old. That was not then his name. Iarwain Ben-adar we called him, oldest and fatherless. But many another name he has since been given by other folk: Forn by the Dwarves, Orald by Northern Men, and other names beside. He is a strange creature, but maybe I should have summoned him to our Council.'



'He would not have come,' said Gandalf.



'Could we not still send messages to him and obtain his help?' asked Erestor. 'It seems that he has a power even over the Ring.'



'No, I should not put it so,' said Gandalf. 'Say rather that the Ring has no power over him. He is his own master. But he cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break its power over others. And now he is withdrawn into a little land, within bounds that he has set, though none can see them, waiting perhaps for a change of days, and he will not step beyond them.'



'But within those bounds nothing seems to dismay him,' said Erestor. 'Would he not take the Ring and keep it there, for ever harmless?'



'No,' said Gandalf, 'not willingly. He might do so, if all the free folk of the world begged him, but he would not understand the need. And if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian; and that alone is answer enough.'




He would neither venture from his land nor be reliable enough to carry the Ring to Mordor. Gandalf says that, if asked, he would not have even come to Rivendell. But if begged, he might have taken the Ring to hold, but "if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away." He just doesn't care about the Ring and Sauron the way everyone else does, and he can't be made to.




I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. But if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless. It is a natural pacifist view, which always arises in the mind when there is a war.



The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien 144: To Naomi Mitchison. April 1954




If he wouldn't travel outside his land to come to Rivendell, and if he would forget the Ring or throw it away if he had it -- the Ring that was trying to return to Sauron -- could he have possibly been persuaded to go to Mordor or trusted to complete the mission?



Bombadil could not have done it.






share|improve this answer





















  • 1





    May be worth adding Tolkien's comment about him being wholly an observer, free from all desire of power etc. which made him mostly uninterested in the Quest.

    – Shamshiel
    22 hours ago











  • @Shamshiel Good idea. I remember something like that comment, but I can't recall from where. II'll look for it, but if you can find it, edit and answer to include it and I'll approve the edit.

    – Mark Olson
    21 hours ago











  • Yet Bombadil seems to have power over Old Man Willow.

    – Anton Sherwood
    6 hours ago














6












6








6







The Council of Elrond discusses asking Bombadil to help:




[Elrond]: But I had forgotten Bombadil, if indeed this is still the same that walked the woods and hills long ago, and even then was older than the old. That was not then his name. Iarwain Ben-adar we called him, oldest and fatherless. But many another name he has since been given by other folk: Forn by the Dwarves, Orald by Northern Men, and other names beside. He is a strange creature, but maybe I should have summoned him to our Council.'



'He would not have come,' said Gandalf.



'Could we not still send messages to him and obtain his help?' asked Erestor. 'It seems that he has a power even over the Ring.'



'No, I should not put it so,' said Gandalf. 'Say rather that the Ring has no power over him. He is his own master. But he cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break its power over others. And now he is withdrawn into a little land, within bounds that he has set, though none can see them, waiting perhaps for a change of days, and he will not step beyond them.'



'But within those bounds nothing seems to dismay him,' said Erestor. 'Would he not take the Ring and keep it there, for ever harmless?'



'No,' said Gandalf, 'not willingly. He might do so, if all the free folk of the world begged him, but he would not understand the need. And if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian; and that alone is answer enough.'




He would neither venture from his land nor be reliable enough to carry the Ring to Mordor. Gandalf says that, if asked, he would not have even come to Rivendell. But if begged, he might have taken the Ring to hold, but "if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away." He just doesn't care about the Ring and Sauron the way everyone else does, and he can't be made to.




I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. But if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless. It is a natural pacifist view, which always arises in the mind when there is a war.



The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien 144: To Naomi Mitchison. April 1954




If he wouldn't travel outside his land to come to Rivendell, and if he would forget the Ring or throw it away if he had it -- the Ring that was trying to return to Sauron -- could he have possibly been persuaded to go to Mordor or trusted to complete the mission?



Bombadil could not have done it.






share|improve this answer















The Council of Elrond discusses asking Bombadil to help:




[Elrond]: But I had forgotten Bombadil, if indeed this is still the same that walked the woods and hills long ago, and even then was older than the old. That was not then his name. Iarwain Ben-adar we called him, oldest and fatherless. But many another name he has since been given by other folk: Forn by the Dwarves, Orald by Northern Men, and other names beside. He is a strange creature, but maybe I should have summoned him to our Council.'



'He would not have come,' said Gandalf.



'Could we not still send messages to him and obtain his help?' asked Erestor. 'It seems that he has a power even over the Ring.'



'No, I should not put it so,' said Gandalf. 'Say rather that the Ring has no power over him. He is his own master. But he cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break its power over others. And now he is withdrawn into a little land, within bounds that he has set, though none can see them, waiting perhaps for a change of days, and he will not step beyond them.'



'But within those bounds nothing seems to dismay him,' said Erestor. 'Would he not take the Ring and keep it there, for ever harmless?'



'No,' said Gandalf, 'not willingly. He might do so, if all the free folk of the world begged him, but he would not understand the need. And if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian; and that alone is answer enough.'




He would neither venture from his land nor be reliable enough to carry the Ring to Mordor. Gandalf says that, if asked, he would not have even come to Rivendell. But if begged, he might have taken the Ring to hold, but "if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away." He just doesn't care about the Ring and Sauron the way everyone else does, and he can't be made to.




I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. But if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless. It is a natural pacifist view, which always arises in the mind when there is a war.



The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien 144: To Naomi Mitchison. April 1954




If he wouldn't travel outside his land to come to Rivendell, and if he would forget the Ring or throw it away if he had it -- the Ring that was trying to return to Sauron -- could he have possibly been persuaded to go to Mordor or trusted to complete the mission?



Bombadil could not have done it.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 21 hours ago









Shamshiel

14.1k15275




14.1k15275










answered 22 hours ago









Mark OlsonMark Olson

13.3k24478




13.3k24478








  • 1





    May be worth adding Tolkien's comment about him being wholly an observer, free from all desire of power etc. which made him mostly uninterested in the Quest.

    – Shamshiel
    22 hours ago











  • @Shamshiel Good idea. I remember something like that comment, but I can't recall from where. II'll look for it, but if you can find it, edit and answer to include it and I'll approve the edit.

    – Mark Olson
    21 hours ago











  • Yet Bombadil seems to have power over Old Man Willow.

    – Anton Sherwood
    6 hours ago














  • 1





    May be worth adding Tolkien's comment about him being wholly an observer, free from all desire of power etc. which made him mostly uninterested in the Quest.

    – Shamshiel
    22 hours ago











  • @Shamshiel Good idea. I remember something like that comment, but I can't recall from where. II'll look for it, but if you can find it, edit and answer to include it and I'll approve the edit.

    – Mark Olson
    21 hours ago











  • Yet Bombadil seems to have power over Old Man Willow.

    – Anton Sherwood
    6 hours ago








1




1





May be worth adding Tolkien's comment about him being wholly an observer, free from all desire of power etc. which made him mostly uninterested in the Quest.

– Shamshiel
22 hours ago





May be worth adding Tolkien's comment about him being wholly an observer, free from all desire of power etc. which made him mostly uninterested in the Quest.

– Shamshiel
22 hours ago













@Shamshiel Good idea. I remember something like that comment, but I can't recall from where. II'll look for it, but if you can find it, edit and answer to include it and I'll approve the edit.

– Mark Olson
21 hours ago





@Shamshiel Good idea. I remember something like that comment, but I can't recall from where. II'll look for it, but if you can find it, edit and answer to include it and I'll approve the edit.

– Mark Olson
21 hours ago













Yet Bombadil seems to have power over Old Man Willow.

– Anton Sherwood
6 hours ago





Yet Bombadil seems to have power over Old Man Willow.

– Anton Sherwood
6 hours ago



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