Tom Bombadill seemed like some magey wizardy Gandalfs Brother kind of person, and in the book it mentions he is in contact with Elves and Gandalf, And we also don't know much about the 2 Blue Istari, and from the Description in the book it mentions he wears a blue robe or something like that.
Is this just a random guess? And what else do we know about the blue mages of Valinor?
Thread: Tom Bombadill = Blue Istari?
No, the Blue Wizards are something else entirely. Tom's been in ME since before the first age, before the elves even.
Wizards came only in the third age
Wizards came only in the third age
Oh Ok.
(Is this stuff in the Silmarillion? because I don't under stand a word of the Silmarillion)
(Is this stuff in the Silmarillion? because I don't under stand a word of the Silmarillion)
I believe it is mentioned in the last "book" in the Silmarillion which talks of the third age.
And I have never heard of Blue wizards. What are they?
And I have never heard of Blue wizards. What are they?
The Istari has 5 Members
Gandalf
Saruman
Radagast
2 Blue Wizards
and we hardly know anything about the blue wizards.
Gandalf
Saruman
Radagast
2 Blue Wizards
and we hardly know anything about the blue wizards.
There's a chapter in Unfinished Tales on the Istari.
The Blue Wizards were Alatar and Pallando who went to the east of ME.
The Blue Wizards were Alatar and Pallando who went to the east of ME.
Is there? Kool. Might get it sometime.
So we know who the 2 Blue Istari are then?
Who the heck is TB then?
Is he some form of Maiar?
So we know who the 2 Blue Istari are then?
Who the heck is TB then?
Is he some form of Maiar?
I knew that there were two wizards that went into the east but I did not know that they were called blue wizards. As for unfinished Tales I do not possess the book. I only have LOTR, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Children of Hurin.
Tolkien seems to think the Blue Wizards had no names in the West of Middle-earth but were called 'The Blue Wizards' (at least at one point). However JRRT does seem ready to give them Quenya names, as he did for the more well known wizards too (Curumo, Olórin, Aiwendil). The possibilities are: Morinehtar, Rómestámo, Rómestar, Alatar, Pallando.
Tolkien had various things to say about them: '... others of the Istari who went into the east of Middle-earth, and do not come into these tales' Of the Rings of Power 1954 Istari essay (Unfinished Tales): number of order unknown -- two wizards came clad in Sea-blue, little known of them -- no names in the West save Ithryn Luin 'the Blue Wizards' -- passed into East with Saurman but never returned -- whether remained in the East pursuing their purpose, or perished, or as some hold were ensnared by Sauron and became his servants, is not known. A hard to date, brief and hasty sketch: Quenya names appear, Alatar and Pallando -- this dates from sometime after the completion of The Lord of the Rings.
An alliterative verse mentions: of the five that that came from a far country, only one retuned. 1958 (letter 211): Tolkien -- doesn't know colours (doubts they had distinctive colours) -- doesn't know anything clearly about the 'other two' -- thinks they went to distant land, fears they failed, and suspects they were founders or beginners or secret cults and magic traditions outlasting Sauron's fall. The Lord of the Rings and late notes:
In The Lord of the Rings the Istari were said to have appeared in Middle-earth when maybe a thousand years of the Third Age had passed. The Istari need not have arrived all together, on the same exact ship of course; but a late text on the success of the 'other two' reads... 'The 'other two' came much earlier, at the same time probably as Glorfindel, when matters became very dangerous in the Second Age' (and it was said that the reincarnated Glorfindel probably came to Middle-earth in SA 1600). And... [they] '... must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East ... who would both in the Second Age and Third Age otherwise have ... outnumbered the West.'
According to this late note their names are Morinehtar and Romestamo (or Rome(n)star). According to another late note: 'no names are recorded for the two wizards' But compare with yet another passage, similarly dated very late (probably 1972)... 'Saruman is said (e.g. by Gandalf himself) to have been the chief of the Istari -- that is, higher in Valinórean stature than the others. Gandalf was evidently the next in order. Radagast is presented as a person of much less power and wisdom. Of the other two nothing is said in published work save the reference to the five wizards in the altercation between Gandalf and Saruman. Now these Maiar were sent by the Valar at a crucial moment in the history of Middle-earth to enhance the resistance of the Elves of the West, waning in power, and of the uncorrupted Men of the West, greatly outnumbered by those of the East and South.' Unfinished Tales It is difficult to know if this note came before, or after, the two late notes above, but this one seems to state that all the Istari in question came at generally the same time (at a crucial moment), rather than two wizards coming in SA 1600 -- well before Gandalf! Again, keeping in mind, in any case, what was published by Tolkien himself in The Lord of the Rings. That may not be everything... but it's a start 
Thank you Galin. This was a very interesting post to read. I will try to see if I can dig up more information on them.
Tom Bombadil is prob Eru :O
And by the way the blue wizards names ,they are called Alatar and Pallando.Pallando i think wasn't sent by Manwe Alatar I THINK WAS PROB JST ALOUD TO BRING A BUDDY but he still is Istari
Eru as he says he was here for the first raindrop and stuff and when the hobbitass ask who he is to his wife she says he is :O so i think hes prob eru or iluvatar-dont think thts spelt right but still 
I am sure that Tom was not an Istari,for they came in the Third Age.Also,Tolkien wrote that Blue Wizards were Allatar and Palando in Unfinished Tales.
They were many speculations that Tom was Eru Iluvatar,and one of Tolkiens friends wrote a letter for him with such assumption.
His friend noticed Goldberrys answer to the hobbits when asked who he was.She answered:"He is",so his friend assumed he was Eru.
Tolkien replyied and wrote that he is overreacting in his speculations and that we should not know Toms nature.He was a character who will stay mysterious for us.
They were many speculations that Tom was Eru Iluvatar,and one of Tolkiens friends wrote a letter for him with such assumption.
His friend noticed Goldberrys answer to the hobbits when asked who he was.She answered:"He is",so his friend assumed he was Eru.
Tolkien replyied and wrote that he is overreacting in his speculations and that we should not know Toms nature.He was a character who will stay mysterious for us.
As it should be for any self-respecting enigma.
OK, there's an idea that just came to me... What if a Dwarf and an Elf got children??? Wouldn't they be just like TB??? 
It seems almost surreal that we fans dig and search and ponder and dwell on the mythical history of these creatures and many of us don't know all that much about our own ancestors!
I do not think he is one of the two Blue Wizards. Eru? Maybe.... I think he is absolutely the "missing link" between Elf, Man, Dwarf, and Hobbit, thus making Eru a maybe.
Tom Bombadil was Eru, in my opinion.
I cannot think that Tom was anyone of the groups mentioned. He must have had a purpose else Illuvatar would not have put him on Middle-Earth, but to my mind he was something somehow differentish. And he seems to have had a very specific and limited quest, almost as if he was made just to be there for Frodo and company in the quest, for he seemed to live life quite independant of all the troubles and the wars against the enemy, was completely unafraid of the ring or the enemies and was not worn down from fighting or the stresses like Gandalf, did not seem to enter into the fight even like Beorn.
As for the Ithryn Luin or the blue wizards Alatar and Pallando, Mair, they seem to have travelled to far east of the Anduin, Rhun to be exact with Saruman on the orders to convert the easterners away from the deadly influence Sauron had on them by that time. There seems to be whispers at least that at the beginning the two indeed had success for Sauron's forces from there were not as strong as expected to be. However, Saruman returned and they did not and only talk of those two being the founders of secret cults and magic traditions lingered well into the fourth age and perhaps beyond, so it may have been the same for them as Saruman. Great start, then being bequiled into evil things instead of fulfilling their charge as did Gandalf. They never returned to the undying lands so I have no idea what might have become of the two.
Tom Bombadil is prob Eru :O
I once suspected this as well and it would have been a great way for Eru to keep an eye on things... However in response to this query from an avid reader the Professor dispelled it in one of his famed letters.
In my mind Tom is a powerful Maia perhaps akin to Yavanna her self. Maybe he was concerned about the survival of the forests, as Yavanna was in the Elder days, and travelled to Middle Earth to protect the trees and plants in some way.
For a long time I did not give much thought to Tom Bombadil because of Priscilla's having had the wooden doll she named or John her brother named, don't remember. So lately I began wanting to know what the mind of our professor was regarding Tom and in The Letters it explains things quite nicely.
On page 26 Tolkien asks Mr. Unwin(publisher) if he thinks Tom Bombadil could be made into the hero of a story and describes Tom as the 'spirit' of the vanising Oxford and Berkshire countryside. That made sense to me. On page 74 our professor, talking to a woman named Naomi or something says that there should, even in mythical writing be some things tht are enigmas, because there always are. Tom, he tells her is one and one by his intention. Thus the frustrating questions that arise when reading about him.
On page 178 Tolkien comes right out and says that Tom is not even an important character to the story. he only put him in apparently because he represented something that was important to his feelings and such. And but for that embodiment of feeling he was prepared to leave him out. And then the professor goes on to explain the the 'story' as we can plainly see has a good side and a bad side as it were, but that Tom has in some way taken what the professor says is sort of 'a vow of poverty' where he simply does not take a side, he merely takes delight and joy in nature and things only for their own sake, not wishing nor desiring any sort of power or authority. Period. So, really he is the classic pacifist and his continuing on at all depends upon ultimate victory by the free peoples against Sauron. Otherwise he and Goldberry, who Tolkien said somewhere, I will find it , represents at least in some way the changing of the seasons, would have no way to survive, to exist at all.
On page 192 Tolkien says that he never meant Tom to be an allegory, only he represents that which embodies natural science, a spirit if you wlll that deeply desires knowledge of other things , the nature of them and the history of them for no other reason than that they are 'other' . But his Tom has absolutely no concern with doing a single thing with the knowledge.That may explain why the One Ring had absolutely no effect upon Tom. Tolkien explains that he , Tom rarely even judges and thus does nothing with that evil Willow.
At any rate there is more in The Letters but you can look up the information for yourselves.
