: That cannot be I afraid. In LOTR Bombadil says he was there before the first acorn fell, before the first drop of rain (or some other similar such talk). The flora of Arda was created by Yavanna, the wind and the rains by Manwe and Ulmo respectively, when the Valar were shaping the world therefore Tom, in some shape or form (probably as Iarwain Ben-adar as named by Elrond in LOTR), long before Eru place the Eldar upon the world.

But if you examine the words closely one could interpret them to mean the first raindrop of the Withywindle or the first acorn of the Old Forest, and then maybe he wasn't primeval. Yet I still agree with you Padster that he is as old as you say, I'm just stating another way to look at it.

Jon