He is not a hobbit, neither a man, but what is he? Is he a dwarf? A wizard? A god? Something else entirely?

  • blargerer@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I can’t answer what Bombadil is in the lore of LOTR, he seems to be unique in terms of entities we are shown. But I can tell you what he is at a meta level. You see, LOTR was first told as stories to Tolkiens kids, which you probably already knew, which you may not have known, is that Bombadil was a recurring character in previous stories he had told his children. So at a meta level, Bombadil is just a fun callback to a previous character for his kids to have enjoyed.

      • SariEverna@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        Thank you for indirectly leading me to discover the book title “The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England”. Even if I never work my way to finding out anything further about this corner of literature, that title certainly tickled me.

        • cowfodder@unilem.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          It’s a really fun read. Sanderson gets some hate from literary snobs for his simple writing style but sometimes that’s the style of story you need.

          • AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            He has a simple writing style? I tried reading his books a long time ago and found them overly wordy. Has he adapted?