Who Is the Woman Singing With Tom Bombadil in ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2?

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 4.

As The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power continues to explore new portions of Middle-earth, familiar characters have found their way into the story, with fan-favorite Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) the most notable among them. With Old Tom, though, comes a whole host of other favorites from J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Lord of the Rings, such as the demonic-looking Barrow-wights and another Old Man tree (this time an Ironwood instead of a Willow). But there’s one more character who’s been teased in the Season 2 episode, “Eldest,” who is just as important to the mythos of Old Bombadillo. A woman is heard singing with the jolly fellow while the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is bathing in the other room. When Tom is asked about her, he plays coy about her existence, but fans of Tolkien’s original material know better.

Goldberry Is as Much a Mystery as Tom Bombadil

The truth is, just as the history of Tom Bombadil himself is unknown, so is that of his wife, Goldberry. While Tom calls himself the “Eldest” — the Elf warrior Glorfindel goes even further, calling him “First” — of all living things, remembering the first acorns and drops of rain, Goldberry’s origins are a bit more mysterious. Called “the River-woman’s daughter,” many have speculated that Goldberry is a water fae, or perhaps even a representation of the biblical Eve (with Tom representing the first man, Adam), albeit one who didn’t succumb to temptation at the beginning of the world. Tolkien himself, however, once wrote that she “represents the actual seasonal changes in [river-lands],” leaving her actual origins under lock and key (via The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien). But just because we don’t know what exactly Tom or Goldberry are doesn’t mean we don’t know how they first met.

In his epic poem collection, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book, Tolkien expands on Bombadil and Goldberry’s first meeting. When wandering near the Withywindle (a river running through the Old Forest), Tom is pulled into the water by Goldberry, who mischievously grabs him by the beard. Though he commands her to release him, Tom later returns to make Goldberry his wife, with many of the animals of the forest attending their wedding ceremony. In the Third Age, she and Tom made their home in the Old Forest, occasionally communing with Hobbits from the Shire. Most notably, she and Tom hosted Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin for several days during the events of The Fellowship of the Ring, where she kept them fed. Funny enough, the only reason Tom meets with the four Hobbits is that he had been out picking water lilies for his bride, who asked for them in order to make their home more like the river she once lived in.

As far as Goldberry’s appearance is concerned, Tolkien describes her in a way that evokes thoughts of a flowing stream, with hair “rippled” down her shoulders and a voice that’s “like the song of a glad water flowing down into the night from a bright morning in the hills.” It’s no doubt that this River-daughter is so deeply connected to water, which makes Tom Bombadil’s decision to venture into the desert lands of Rhûn all the more interesting. If Goldberry clearly misses her home even while living along the Withywindle in Tolkien’s original novel, then wouldn’t removing her from bodies of water entirely be a bit too extreme? We’ll have to see what Rings of Power throws at us next, but if or when we do finally see her, she’ll likely be surrounding herself with as much water as she can collect.

Why Is Tom Bombadil Keeping His Wife a Secret in ‘The Rings of Power’?

In “Eldest,” Tom Bombadil begins acting strange around the Stranger when the Istar asks him about the woman he heard singing (voiced by Raya Yarbrough) in the other room. We don’t get to see Goldberry in this episode, and we might not at all depending on where the story takes Old Tom and the Stranger, but Bombadil does encourage her not to be so shy. It could be that he’s respecting her decision to remain hidden from the Stranger, or his just general air of mysteriousness that keeps us guessing as to what he even is (the Stranger asks him that same question), but either way, audiences are left wondering about this mystery woman.

Because The Lord of the Rings doesn’t expand much on Goldberry (neither do Tolkien’s poetic words), we can’t expect The Rings of Power to give us any further answers. Though the Prime Video series has changed some things about Tolkien’s original mythology, such as Celeborn’s place in the narrative and the order in which the titular Rings are forged, it’s unlikely it will take any additional time to explore more about Goldberry, Old Man Ironwood, or the Barrow-wights, which would all take away from Rory Kinnear’s time as Tom Bombadil (a character famously excluded from Peter Jackson‘s film trilogy). Still, her vocal cameo is a fun nod to the larger role of Bombadil, Goldberry, and others in the first part of Tolkien’s high-fantasy epic, and leaves us anxious for more.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is available for streaming on Prime Video.

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