LotRO Lorebook: Tom Bombadil

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar Lorebook has a new entry up on the enigmatic Tom Bombadil.

In the Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring, Tom Bombadil comes to the rescue of Frodo and his companions first from Old Man Willow in the Old Forrest and again in the Barrow Downs. LotRO players will also meet Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry on their quest to aid Strider.

Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow;

Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.

This verse describes the surface appearance of the strange entity known as Bombadil. He seems a jovial (if not somewhat absurd) fellow, skipping and singing through the treacherous Old Forest at the Bounds of Buckland; but beneath the surface is hidden a Power that few, even the Wise, can comprehend. He is old beyond the count of years – indeed, the Elves once called him Iarwain Ben-adar, Oldest and Fatherless – and once leapt upon the hilltops across the wide lands of Middle-earth. Now, though, he has settled in the Old Forest with his wife Goldberry the River-daughter, and set for himself unseen bounds which he no longer crosses.

Tom Bombadil is a key figure in several LotRO Book One quests. J.R.R. Tolkien who detailed the lineage of kings ages before the War of the Rings and wrote extensive notes on the creation and mythos of Middle-earth purposefully left Bombadil a mystery.

via Lord of the Rings Online Lorebook