Posted: September 19, 1999 at 18:30:32: by Jon
: In Roverandom (a JRR Tolkien book, as I hope you needn't be reminded) it
: makes a reference to wizards wearing blue feathers in their hats.
: Although a wizard in that book is not a LotR wizard (Istari),
: perhaps Tom Bombadil is thought to be similar in Maia-type.
: ( He has a blue feather too )
: As we all know, that feather was important to Tolkien, though we may not know why.
: I think this could be a significant step to discoving Tolkiens intentions on Bombadil's identity.
: Seanith
: What do you thinkYou had me for about 5 seconds, then I thought about it. Roverandom, I believe, was written around 1920 or so. Well before the Lord of the Rings, which was written in the late '40s. Tom Bombadil was a character modeled after a doll that one of his sons had (can't remember if it was John, Michael, or Christopher). So my point is, I don't think Tolkien came up with the idea that Tom would have the feather, I think it just so happened the doll was made that way. And since he wrote Roverandom over 20 years earlier, he couldn't have modeled the wizard thing after Tom. So unless the Tom "doll" that the Tolkien's had, really didn't have a feather, and Tolkien came up with the idea when writing the book, I don't think your theory works. If you could find that out, you can find out if your theory works. It would be interesting to find out.
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