Tom Bombadil is the most mysterious character in The Lord of the Rings.
He's the oldest being in Middle-earth and completely immune to the Ring's power — but why?
Bombadil is the key to the underlying ethics of the entire story, and to resisting evil yourself...
Tom Bombadil is an enigmatic, merry hermit of the countryside, known as "oldest and fatherless" by the Elves. He is truly ancient, and claims he was "here before the river and the trees." He's so confounding that Peter Jackson left him out of the films entirely.
This is understandable, since he's unimportant to the development of the plot. Tolkien, however, saw fit to include him anyway, because Tom reveals a lot about the underlying ethics of Middle-earth, and how to shield yourself from evil.
The hobbits meet Bombadil early on in their quest, before they reach Bree and the Prancing Pony Inn. He rescues Merry and Pippin from Old Man Willow, and invites the hobbits to stay at his house in the Old Forest.
There, the hobbits realize something strange about him: the Ring has no power over Bombadil whatsoever.
When he wears it, he remains visible. He treats it as a plaything, making it disappear with a magic trick. Indeed, at the Council of Elrond, Gandalf rejects the idea of giving the Ring to Tom, for he would likely misplace it or forget about it entirely.
So just who is he, exactly?
When Frodo asks this very question to Tom's wife Goldberry, she simply responds "He is." It's a cryptic answer that echoes God's famous answer to Moses in the Book of Exodus: "I am who I am."
Thus, many theorize that Bombadil is God, some kind of angelic being, or even the spirit of the Music of the Ainur (due to the fact that he is constantly singing). But Tolkien's letters reveal something considerably more interesting…
In April 1954, Tolkien wrote:
"The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship… but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control.But if you have, as it were, taken a 'vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself… then the questions of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless…"
So, Bombadil is a representation of what it means to take pure delight in the world around you — to experience people and things simply as they are, without any thought for what they could be or how you could use them. And this is why the Ring has no power over him.
To Bombadil, the One Ring is simply a ring, and the possibilities of what can be achieved through its power are of no importance. He is able to resist its evil precisely because he is entirely content with the world around him.
At the end of the story, having accomplished what he set out to do in Middle-earth, Gandalf pays Tom a visit before returning to the Undying Lands:
"I am going to have a long talk with Bombadil: such a talk as I have not had in all my time."
If Bombadil is the epitome of simply enjoying life and being, Gandalf is the epitome of doing. He guides the hobbits, fights the Balrog, and runs up and down Middle-earth to help destroy the One Ring.
But now that he's finally liberated from doing, he immediately heads to Bombadil's. He does so with a sense of relief, as if he's at last able to access a purer and higher mode of being — a sort of innocence that cannot be fully experienced by those consumed by doing.
Of course, by this Tolkien doesn't disparage the value of action. The entirety of LOTR displays the importance of rising up against evil, even in the face of all odds. But with the inclusion of Bombadil, he does remind readers that fighting isn't all there is.
Bombadil reminds us that while it's important to strive and *do*, it is just as important to occasionally step back and *be*. Indeed, your ability to do so plays a crucial role in helping you resist the allure of evil…
Read the full piece here:
https://t.co/aqK2daehIL
The unsung hero of The Lord of the Rings...
@sextaNoticias Vuestra puta madre bien? Lo digo porque ella no tiene la culpa de tener a unos hijos tan sinvergüenzas como vosotros.
Racismo? No. Defensa propia. Ultraderecha no, seres con miedo a ser degollados en sus calles.
España es el único país del mundo en el que hay 2 gays follando en un parque público mientras otro se hace una paja, aparecen unos moros en patinete para pegarles y echan la culpa a los fachas
"Este taller se destruyó al inicio de la guerra civil" y ya está, se destruyó, a tomar por culo.
Se destruiría solo, me imagino.
Estaba el taller tranquilamente y dijo búa tu que movida lo de la guerra me destruyo jaja saludos.
🔥💚 SORTEO CAMISETA REAL BETIS 💚🔥
¿Quieres llevarte esta maravilla? 👕✨
📲 La sorteamos el 13 de JUNIO
👉🏻 Para participar:
✅ Seguir a @errebebe_studio
✅ Seguir a @TinteroVB
✅ Hacer RT a este tuit
✅ Dale MG a este tuit
✅ Mencionar a 2 amigos
¡Así de fácil!
🍀 Mucha suerte a todos 🍀
@sanpatostia Pues como los remakes de juegos que aún no se han quedado antiguos: si hay live action de La Cenicienta y de El libro de la selva, ¿por qué no de lo que me gusta a mí?
🎮SORTEO VIDEOJUEGO + LOTE GOLOSINAS🎮
🍭Sorteamos 1 juego de Nintendo Switch con un lote de Vidal Golosinas 🍭
Para participar:
✅ Sigue a @Vidal_Golosinas y @MeridiemGames
💙 Dale like y RT a este tweet
🧑🤝🧑Menciona a 2 amigos
⏰ Tenéis hasta el 11 de Junio a las 23:59
📍Sorteo válido solo en Península
Mucha suerte a todos!!
In 1995, Rory Gallagher lay dying in a London hospital.
His liver was failing.
He was only 47 years old.
The transplant surgery succeeded.
Then, while recovering in the ICU, he caught MRSA.
He slipped into a coma and died weeks later.
Outside Ireland, most people barely know his name.
But ask almost any legendary guitarist about Rory Gallagher…
…and watch their face change.
Brian May said Rory helped shape Queen’s sound.
Slash said the same about Guns N’ Roses.
Johnny Marr called him “the man who changed my musical life.”
The Edge said it too.
Even The Rolling Stones tried to recruit him.
He turned them down.
Rory Gallagher was born in Ireland in 1948 and grew up in Cork.
At age 9, he got his first guitar.
At 15, he bought a battered 1961 Fender Stratocaster for £100.
He would play that same guitar for the rest of his life.
By the end, most of the paint had literally worn off from sweat and constant touring.
He started playing tiny clubs as a teenager before forming a blues-rock band called Taste.
By 1969, Taste was exploding across Europe.
They opened for Cream’s farewell concert.
Toured America with Blind Faith.
Played the Isle of Wight Festival.
Then it all collapsed.
The band broke apart in 1970.
Rory went solo.
And this is where his story became unusual.
He never tried to become a celebrity.
No flashy image.
No rock-star persona.
No tabloid life.
Just jeans, a checked shirt, and a guitar.
While most bands avoided Ireland during The Troubles, Rory toured there constantly.
Belfast.
Derry.
Dublin.
Catholics and Protestants standing together in the same audience during one of the most violent periods in Irish history.
Music first.
Always.
Offers kept coming.
Cream wanted him.
Deep Purple wanted him.
Canned Heat wanted him.
Then, in 1975, Mick Jagger personally invited him to audition for The Rolling Stones after Mick Taylor left.
Rory flew out.
Played with the Stones.
Then quietly left for another tour commitment without ever really answering them.
Ronnie Wood got the job instead.
By the late 1980s, everything started changing.
Synth-pop replaced blues-rock.
Record sales dropped.
Rory developed a severe fear of flying.
Doctors prescribed heavy sedatives.
He mixed them with alcohol while continuing relentless tours.
Night after night.
Year after year.
The combination slowly destroyed his liver.
Still, he kept performing.
Because the stage was the only place he truly seemed alive.
Offstage, he was intensely shy.
No marriage.
No children.
No celebrity lifestyle.
Just crime novels, isolation, and music.
His final concert was January 10, 1995, in the Netherlands.
He looked visibly ill.
The tour was cancelled.
Weeks later, his brother found him gravely sick in his apartment.
Doctors said only a liver transplant could save him.
The operation worked.
Then the hospital infection killed him instead.
Ireland mourned like it had lost family.
Thousands lined the streets for his funeral in Cork.
Today, Ireland has:
• statues of Rory
• streets named after him
• commemorative coins
• annual festivals in his honor
Yet outside Ireland, many people still have no idea who he was.
But musicians do.
Because Rory Gallagher became something rarer than fame:
A guitarist’s guitarist.
A man who loved music more than celebrity.
And played until his body finally gave out.
Parece que Antonio Santiago Álvarez nació en la Maternidad de la inclusa de la calle Mesón de Paredes, 66 de Madrid, el 30 de junio de 1910.
El 4 de marzo de 1934 estuvo involucrado en el asesinato del estudiante Angel Abella, estudiante de Medicina de 18 años que fue tomado por falangista tras el acto del Teatro Calderón, en el que las JONS, las JCAH vallisoletanas y Falange Española se fusionaron.
Angel fue atacado en las inmediaciones de la plaza de los Arces y la calle Zapico por anarquistas de la CNT-FAI y socialistas de la Casa del Pueblo. Santiago militaba en la UGT en ese momento y trabajaba de albañil en la construcción.
Formaba parte del grupo que asesinó a Angel Abella con una brutal paliza que le produjo un traumatismo craneoencefálico del que falleció dos dias después. La justicia republicana sólo celebró juicio contra la persona que le golpeó con una barra de hierro en la cabeza, el anarquista Francisco Calle, limitándose a tomar declaraciones en instrucción a todos los que fueron identificados.
Antonio Santiago Álvarez, en su declaración en el juzgado de instrucción y en ese juicio, dijo no haber visto nada porque se quedó en una esquina, no delatando a sus compañeros ni a él mismo.
Esa declaración fue premiada dándole una plaza de guardia municipal en el Ayuntamiento de Valladolid, gobernado por el alcalde socialista Antonio García Quintana.
Sin embargo, su nombramiento no se produjo hasta marzo de 1935, habiendo sido sustituido el alcalde socialista por el republicano Federico Landrove López, de la Unión Republicana.
Entre el asesinato del estudiante, tomado por falangista por sus asesinos, y su nombramiento, el abuelo de Óscar Puente, participó en el golpe de Eatado socialista de octubre de 1934. Fue acusado de formar parte del grupo terrorista que el 7 de octubre colocó explosivos en Electra Popular, detenido y exonerado sin juicio.
El 8 de septiembre de 1936, con Valladolid ya en manos de los nacionales, Antonio Santiago fue detenido e ingresado en la prisión de Cocheras de Tranvías, quedando en libertad. Inciciandose un expediente administrativo de revocación de nombramiento arbitrario como premio político. Fue dado de baja como guardia municipal en fecha 27 de enero de 1937, cuando Antonio ya estaba combatiendo con el Ejército de la República en el frente de Andalucía.
Aprovechando un permiso, y sabiendo que su mujer había tenido un hijo en Valladolid, cruzó las lineas para conocer a ese niño. Fue detenido por Guardias de Asalto y encarcelado en la Cárcel Nueva a disposicion del Coronel Auditor de Guerra de la Séptima Región Militar, dsda su condición de militar republicano en ese momento.
Al comprobarse que había combatido en el Ejército Popular de la República en Andalucía, la Inspección de Campos de Concentración (ICCP) dictaminó su traslado directo a un batallón de castigo como "soldado trabajador". El 29 de agosto de 1939 se formalizó su asignación al Batallón de Trabajadores número 5.
Allí debió cumplir el servicio militar que cumplían todos los soldados republicanos.
Conclusión:
A la espera de los expedientes en papel de Antonio Santiago Álvarez, abuelo de Oscar Puente Santiago, podemos decir:
Que, su abuelo no fue represaliado por socialista, ni por ser funcionario republicano en el Ayuntamiento de Valladolid.
Antonio Santiago, que era albañil y radical socialista, recibió una plaza de Guardia Municipal en ese Ayuntamiento, no por oposición o méritos, sino por formar parte del grupo de radicales que apalizaron y asesinaron a un estudiante falangista de 18 años y no delatarse ni delatar a su compañeros.
Que, colocó bombas en las revueltas y atentados del golpe de estado socialista de octubre se 1934.
Que, perdió la plaza que le habían dado como premio, al revisarse el expediente de su nombramiento (había generado eco mediático por el pacto de silencio y premios).
Que, cumplió servicio militar en un Batallon Disciplinario de Soldados Trabajadores.
Que, Oscar Puente miente