: In Robert Foster's "The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth," he guesses that Bombadil is a "Maia 'gone native' ". What is VERY interesting is that Christopher Tolkien in the History of Middle-Earth series notes this and in a way implies that Foster might be surprisingly close to the truth.

I've pondered the same point, but if Christopher Tolkien knows what his father meant about Tom being an "allegory" or "exemplar", I wish he'd publish it. If he's merely guessing, then his guess is no better or worse than ours. I think we can safely say that Tom was not a man. The Ring not only didn't have any appeal for him, but when he put it on he didn't disappear. When Tom made the Ring disappear, was that mere slight of hand or did Tom have a bit more power than we thought?