I always thought of Tom Bombidil as Eru, the creator, or at the very least was taking cues from Eru. Two pieces of evidence:
1) The song he gives, which seemed a positive one, and is not remarked upon as discordant or unpleasant. Eru created through song, and in that choir it was the introduction of disharmony that signified evil.
2) The passage where it's asked "who is he?" The answer is "He is." And then "he is as you have seen him". Tolkien was a religious person, and this passage has always seemed to echo that of the bible where a similar question gets the godly response "I am that I am". This echo always seemed to much to be a coincidence.
Yes, he is the GMPC in a RPG setting. As this is heroic fantasy with few or no subversions to the plot ever, the other characters are written as not meta enough to note that they are in a story, and the author of the story put his avatar in there.
> Eru created through song, and in that choir it was the introduction of disharmony that signified evil.
I take a different view:
Eru knew who Melkor was from the start, and his “disharmony” was part of a broader and richer song — as shown by the duet that led to man and the ultimate downfall of evil lords.
The only time Eru spoke to Melkor, he chided him for thinking that a being of his own essence was acting outside his intent or marring the music.
If you take the Valar as aspects of Eru, then Melkor is the internal critic that drives genius to greater heights.
Very interesting! But I wonder if it might be a bit of misdirection by Tolkein to say "there is no embodiment of the One.." After all he is good Catholic who believed in the Trinity.
Still it is strong evidence against == Eru unless Tolkein was playing semantic games.
Rather than his surroundings being a symbol of the true Tom, I take this to be Tolkien's allegory of divine intervention, God himself reaching in and tilting the balance slightly, a little nudge while otherwise letting things play out. An extremely rare occurrence both in Tolkien's creation and his own religion, which is why Tom is not more widely known, except by Gandalf who rubs elbows with the Valar when not running around Middle Earth.
1) The song he gives, which seemed a positive one, and is not remarked upon as discordant or unpleasant. Eru created through song, and in that choir it was the introduction of disharmony that signified evil.
2) The passage where it's asked "who is he?" The answer is "He is." And then "he is as you have seen him". Tolkien was a religious person, and this passage has always seemed to echo that of the bible where a similar question gets the godly response "I am that I am". This echo always seemed to much to be a coincidence.