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Whether he's the actual embodiment of the pre-Melkor music, or an early by-product of it that had, like many primal spirits (Ungoliant, Old Man Willow..), eventually taken on a physical form, I think I'm pretty convinced Tom came into the picture before Arda was solidified. Now, to ponder why he chose the form of a man..
"And her heart was beating" - always struck me as a very odd thing to write. As if, perhaps, her heart hadn't been beating the first time they met, when he treated her as just another tricksy willow-spirit.
Goldberry's mum comes across as something a good deal scarier, and can't leave the river to follow her daughter. So if she's what's left of Nienor, she's well and truly not 'alive' as such, but some kind of lurky water spirit hanging about in the deep roots of Old Man Willow (by whom she might have been 'caught' before Beleriand sank, and maybe Treebeard herded a pile of Huorns and other tree-critters over to the Old Forest. Maybe. (.. see note on OMW below..).
Goldberry's different, however - she *can* leave the river (though she is still bound to it by some seasonally related need, hence the water lilies) and -- maybe -- take on a *more* physical body. That she did so, I think, is what impressed him enough to make her his wife, can't be an easy thing to do. But then, remains the question of why Goldberry can do this, but River-woman cannot. I was thinking, re the Nienor theory, that Goldberry perhaps cut a break because she was an innocent, unborn when Nienor flung herself into the ravine, and technically the curse ended with Turin's death.
Re Old Man Willow.. he's pretty interesting, being that he didn't start out as a tree or an Ent, but was some presumably much older "grey" spirit that came to inhabit a willow tree in some distant epoch, and living in it (like a parasite?) he has "rotted the heart" of the tree. He's the reason (aside from some understandable forest-y angst due to logging) that the Old Forest is so aggressive and hostile, and also "dark", and he appears to have some hefty powers, himself. I think it's at least possible that, in Tasarinen (which he may have even created himself, being the oldest Willow and all) he captured either the living Nienor (much as he did the living hobbits) or her unhappy spirit (being that he's a critter of some considerable power), and of course, Goldberry with her.
adding: and the wistful memory-like dream of one of the hobbits (can't recall which one right now..) associated with Goldberry, of somewhere "greener" might support the willow-migration theory.
I swear, I didn't mean to waffle again, hehehe. Anyway, I totes agree with you, Martin, that there's no way Tolkien threw the potential for these associations around, willynilly. It's also fun to have cause to chase the stories about a bit, isn't it, which I think was also quite intentional.
"And her heart was beating" - always struck me as a very odd thing to write. As if, perhaps, her heart hadn't been beating the first time they met, when he treated her as just another tricksy willow-spirit.
Goldberry's mum comes across as something a good deal scarier, and can't leave the river to follow her daughter. So if she's what's left of Nienor, she's well and truly not 'alive' as such, but some kind of lurky water spirit hanging about in the deep roots of Old Man Willow (by whom she might have been 'caught' before Beleriand sank, and maybe Treebeard herded a pile of Huorns and other tree-critters over to the Old Forest. Maybe. (.. see note on OMW below..).
Goldberry's different, however - she *can* leave the river (though she is still bound to it by some seasonally related need, hence the water lilies) and -- maybe -- take on a *more* physical body. That she did so, I think, is what impressed him enough to make her his wife, can't be an easy thing to do. But then, remains the question of why Goldberry can do this, but River-woman cannot. I was thinking, re the Nienor theory, that Goldberry perhaps cut a break because she was an innocent, unborn when Nienor flung herself into the ravine, and technically the curse ended with Turin's death.
Re Old Man Willow.. he's pretty interesting, being that he didn't start out as a tree or an Ent, but was some presumably much older "grey" spirit that came to inhabit a willow tree in some distant epoch, and living in it (like a parasite?) he has "rotted the heart" of the tree. He's the reason (aside from some understandable forest-y angst due to logging) that the Old Forest is so aggressive and hostile, and also "dark", and he appears to have some hefty powers, himself. I think it's at least possible that, in Tasarinen (which he may have even created himself, being the oldest Willow and all) he captured either the living Nienor (much as he did the living hobbits) or her unhappy spirit (being that he's a critter of some considerable power), and of course, Goldberry with her.
adding: and the wistful memory-like dream of one of the hobbits (can't recall which one right now..) associated with Goldberry, of somewhere "greener" might support the willow-migration theory.
I swear, I didn't mean to waffle again, hehehe. Anyway, I totes agree with you, Martin, that there's no way Tolkien threw the potential for these associations around, willynilly. It's also fun to have cause to chase the stories about a bit, isn't it, which I think was also quite intentional.
I've actually never done an in-depth search for the possible fate of the entwives, so this'll be fun.. thanks for yet another excuse to neglect my yardwork. =p
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