Warning! Spoilers for Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 4 ahead!
Tom Bombadil is officially introduced in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, and his big debut has a clever connection to Tolkien Lord of the Rings book. This character in and of itself is a favorite feature of The Fellowship of the RingAnd his presence in the Prime Video series is especially exciting since Peter Jackson’s film trilogy left him. however, Rings of power Took a different approach to Tom Bombadil, placing him in Rhûn rather than his typical home in the Old Forest. Still, there is something familiar about old Tom’s eastern home.
in Rings of power Season 2, Episode 4, The Stranger finally found the constellation he was looking for, though not in the way he expected. It turns out everything led him to a meeting with Tom Bombadil, who, in Rings of powers version of events, has a home in Rhûn. Immediately after stumbling upon this strange, happy sight, the stranger saw an old tree with a branch that would be perfect for a wizard. However, when he tried to break the branch off, The tree rose and began to swallow the stranger in its trunk– a very specific event that was very familiar Lord of the Rings Book fans.
Tom Bombadil’s debut perfectly reflects his original Lord of the Rings intro
This isn’t the first time Tom Bombadil has saved someone from a tree
Tom Bombadil finally saved the stranger from the tree, playfully calling the thing “Old Man Ironwood.” It was the perfect debut for the magical and musical character since This is almost exactly how he was introduced The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In the book, Frodo, Merry, Pippin and Sam enter the Old Forest shortly after leaving the Shire and quickly find themselves under attack by a willow tree. It absorbed them into its trunk and roots until Tom Bombadil came and sang to it, telling “Old Willow“To let the hobbits go.
Old man’s willow and the connection of the Rhûn tree explained
Rings of power imply that Tom Bombadil’s trees share something in common
Tom Bombadil and Old Man Willow are memorable features of the Fellowship of the Ring book, which makes it all the more meaningful that Rings of powerThis version of the character has a similar tree near his Rhûn home. Old Tom may be far from the Old Forest in this adaptation, however Old Man Ironwood was the perfect way to create cohesiveness between the two variations of Bombadil’s character. He is still the sing-song, mysterious man with a strange connection to nature. Of course, there may be even more to the trees than just this.
Perhaps they are something like brothers, spirits of nature with some unseen magical connection.
The name Old Man Ironwood implies a connection between the Rhûn tree and Old Man Willow in the Old Forest. It is certainly not the same tree – Bombadil did not bring these things with him on his mysterious journey to the East. However, the implication seems to be that Old Man Ironwood would have a similar origin to Old Man Willow. Perhaps they are something like brothers, spirits of nature with some unseen magical connection. Maybe This is how Tom Bombadil continues to hold power in RhûnDespite the implication in Lord of the Rings That his magic only spread to the borders of the old forest.
Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 4 is an homage to LOTR’s Old Forest
Bombadil & Tree Spirit & Wheat, oh my!
Regardless of the in-world connection between Old Man Ironwood and Old Man Willow, the Rhûn tree is meant to be an homage to Bombadil’s debut in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In fact, the whole of Rings of power Season 2, episode 4, is an homage to the ancient forest sequence from Tolkien’s books. This ancient and mysterious forest is where The Hobbits meet not only Tom Bombadil and Old Man Willow, but also the Barrow-witsThat also came into play in this installment of the Prime Video series.
in the Fellowship of the Rings book, Tom Bombadil also saved the Hobbits from the Barrow-joke. It was he who explained that they must cover the barrow-downs with the weapons hidden in the graves to stop the whites from returning. It was also Tom Bombadil who gave the hobbits four of the blades, one of which would later be used to magically injure the Witch-king of Angmar. Unfortunately, all of this was cut from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Movies. Despite being a story in a completely different age, Rings of power has managed to pay tribute to these moments with a beautifully constructed episode.