Compilations » Personnages » Tom Bombadil

*Compilation : Tom dans "The Letters"

Bonjour à tous, j'ai besoin de l'aide de ceux qui possède le livre "The letters of JRR Tolkien". Ce serait gentil si quelqu'un pouvait me sortir l'extrait où Tolkien parle de Tom Bombadil ( je sais que ça déjà été cité sur cette liste je crois peut-être avez-vous encore ce message ). Je suis en pleine discussion avec Varda ( c'est la Web-mêstre d'un site anglophone ) qui me demande de lui fournir la référence et l'extrait de ce sujet. Elle prétend que Tom Bombadil est un Maïa, ce qui n'est pas vrai selon certains textes.

Voici ce qui pourra t'être utile:

Lettre 144 a Naomi Mitchison date du 25 Avril 1954

"And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)."
"Tom Bombadil is not an important person - to the narrative. I suppose he has some importance as a 'comment'. I mean, I do not really write like that: he is just an invention (who first appeared in the Oxford Magazine about 1933), and he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyze the feeling precisely. I would not, however, have left him in, if he did not have some kind of function. I might put it this way." Le passage continue a propos de la lutte du bien contre le mal mais rien qui t'intéresse pour le moment.

Lettre 153 a Peter Hastings date de Septembre 1954 (jamais envoyée) (italique d'après le texte original)

"Lots of other characters are called Master; and if 'in time' Tom was primeval he was Eldest in Time. But Goldberry abd Tom are referring to the mystery of names. See and ponder Tom's words in Vol.I p.142 (c'est-à-dire: "Don't you know my name yet? That's the only answer. Tell me, who are you, alone, yourself and nameless?") You may be able to conceive of your unique relation to the Creator without a name – can you: for in such a relation pronouns become proper nouns? But as soon as you are in a world of other finites with a similar, if each unique and different, relation to the Prime Being, who are you? Frodo has asked not 'what is Tom Bombadil' but 'Who is he'. We and he no doubt often laxly confuse the questions. Goldberry gives what I think is the correct answer. We need no go into the sublimities of 'I am that am' - which is quite different from he is (ici une note est attachee disant: Only the first person (of worlds or anything) can be unique. If you say he is there must be more than one, and created (sub) existence is implied. I can say 'he is' of Winston Churchill as well as of Tom Bombadil, surely?). fin de la note). She adds as a concession statement of part of the 'what'. He is master in a peculiar way: he has no fear, and no desire of possession or domination at all. He merely knows and understands about such things as concern him in his natural little realm. He hardly even judges, and as far as can be seen makes no effort to reform or remove even the Willow.I don't think Tom needs philosophizing about, and is not improved by it. But many have found him an odd or indeed discordant ingredient. In historical fact I put him in because I had already 'invented' him independently ( he first appeared in the Oxford Magazine) and wanted an 'adventure' on the way. But I kept him in, and as he was, because he represents certain things otherwise left out. I do not mean him to be an allegory - or I should not have given him so particular, individual, and ridiculous a name- but 'allegory' is the only mode of exhibitingcertain functions: he is then an 'allegory', or an exemplar, a particular embodying of pure (real) natural science: the spirit that desires knowledge of other things, their history and nature, because they are 'other' and wholly independent of the enquiring mind, a spirit coeval with the rational mind, and entirely unconcerned with 'doing' anything with the knowledge: Zoology and Botany not Cattle-breeding or Agriculture. Even the Elves hardly show this: they are primarily artists. Also T.B. exhibits another point in his attitude to the Ring, and its failure to affect him. You must concentrate on some part, probably relatively small, of the World (Universe), whether to tell a tale, however long, or to learn anything however fundamental – and therefore much will from that 'point of view' be left out, distorted on the circumference, or seem a discordant oddity. The power of the Ring over all concerned, even the Wizards or Emissaries, is not a delusion - but it is not the whole picture, even of the then state and content of that part of the Universe."

Les autres mentions de Tom dans les Lettres ne sont pas associées à ta question.
Daniel, pourrais-tu sauver ces extraits dans un fichier pour future référence sur la liste? Tom Bombadil va revenir nous hanter dans 6 ou 8 mois. Au moins on sera près à répondre aux nouveaux venus sans que j'aie à tout retaper.

Nous tenons à remercier Daniel Gagnon et Michaël Dewally pour leurs contributions.
Discussion compilée par Agnès Bouvier

Dernière mise à jour : 2006-04-01 14:35
Auteur : Gildor Inglorion

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