Yes, he is a Maiar. What do you suppose a "spirit of the earth" would be if not a Maiar? He's not one of the Valar, because they're all accounted for and and none of them live in Middle Earth. Orome and Yavanna are probably the only 2 who ever occasionally wander the world, and neither of them are Bombadil. Gandalf even described him as the oldest of the old, which implies he's a Maiar. He even shares some of the same powers as another Maiar, that one who married one of the first elven kings (can't find my copy of Silmarillion now though so I can't remember her name), what with the whole protection of the forest deal and knowing instantly when someone enters his domain thing that she had.

Further, he lives with Goldberry, the River Daughter, implied to be a litteral daughter of Ulmo, god of the seas. I find the idea of 2 Maiar living together more likely than 1 Maiar and one... strange immortal dude who apparantly has no origin and is totally NOT a Maiar just because it never implicitly states so in the book.

Also it outright states he is in the Tolkien encyclopedia, which I would presume knows what it's talking about and has verified sources to go along with it.

From WIki:
Also there is fairly extensive lists of the Maiar who come to Earth, Tom ain't mentioned at all.
And he's not affected by the Ring and doesn't give a shit. All other Maia we see are affected by the power of the Ring despite them all being super powerful. Also all other Maia want to stop Sauron, that why they came to the Earth and left pleasureisland. Tom doesn't give a shit.

Also he knows he is in a book! That's not a Maiar power.

Tom is a being that has the technical description of "Badass" and that is all we ever need to know.

Fixed. Also, needs a nerf.

You just think that cause you don't know how to counter him you stupid noob. His strength actually varies with the health of the battlefield you fight on. If you use Frieza's planet buster while he is singing he will lose all power.

so....

http://welltuncares.files.wordpress....ster-small.jpg

Just another incarnation then?

Well, it's important to keep in mind that Tolkien was writing the Hobbit for his kids, and only included a shape-shifting Bear/Man in there because they were totally obsessed with bears at the time and insisted on them being in the story (and, in fact, most of his children's stories include bears). So it makes a certain amount sense that the name would be simplistic.

Interestingly enough though, in the original manuscript for the Hobbit, Beorn is called Medwed.

Yes, but the real kicker is, Beorn is the Old English form of the Scandinavian name Björn or Bjørn.

Which means... you guessed it, "bear".

A neverending cycle of BEARS

Yes, but still eagles. The Hobbit mentions that the group Bilbo and Co. meet can't just fly them into Rivertown because the eagles have a bad habit of jacking the farmer's livestock and that the farmers would shoot the crap out of them if they got close. Even if they can speak, they're still very much like animals in their instincts and behavior.

There's also the pride thing mentioned as well; they can't bring themselves to care about the other races unless it's under very special circumstances. For the main trilogy, you're asking these things to run what could possibly be a suicide run into the heart of ultimate evil infested with orcs, giant bat things, and A FREAKING ACTIVE VOLCANO, all with the possibility that the guy you're carrying could suddenly give in to the artifact he's trying to destroy and stab you in the back. Personally, I think the eagles would be quite sensible in saying no.

Bombadil was never a fully formed idea to start with. Tolkien himself said he couldn't explain what his purpose was in the story, only that he felt something would be missing with his removal otherwise he wouldn't have been left in.

I'm betting he was just an idea he wanted to use so he tossed him in without much regard to his nature in the grand mythos

Or their pride could influence things so that they decide to take part in this suicide run for all of the glory it would bring.

Nah... eagles are dicks.

My memory from the books (and movies) is a little rusty though, but there is one thing i was thinking about. What is the extent of Magic in Middle Earth?

Sauron was able to forge a bunch of Hyper Magical rings, alright. That Elven chick whatshername summoned a horse-shapped tidal wavel, and Gandalf shined some lights around...

Also, if Gandalf is Sauron, why did he let Saruman capture and beat the crap out of him, if Saruman was serving Sauron?!

At least a suicide run into Mt. Doom would provide the Orc Armies with a hell of a lot of roast bird to feast on.

he's a disembodied fiery eyeball, what else is there to do besides that and plot out the conquest of the known world

toga party

disembodied remember

Unless he has the orcs sow him up a giant toga for his tower.

Eventually he would be strong enough to take on physical form, and that is worth a ripping Toga Party.

Not as far as in the majority of its derivatives. As stated before, wizards here are a completely different class of beings from man; elves get some tricks because of their nature, but even then its usually the ringbearers and other really old individuals (the wave trick was actually one of Elrond's in the books). Magic among men is usually limited to people of certain descent; Aragon gets special abilities because of his lineage as the king of Gondor, and his Numenorean ancestors (basically Middle-Earth's version of Atlantis).

There's an overall feeling of magic slowly decaying over time; where the planet used to be lit by a giant glowing tree and magic lighthouses, we have a physical sun and moon later. The planet goes from being flat to round around the time the Numenorean civilization gets wiped out. The Third Age sees the last of the Elves and the Rings of Power retreating to the West or elsewhere. It's noted that Tolkien thought of the world of Middle-Earth as a sort of mythical past for our own planet, and the retreat of these more mystical elements sort of supports it.

Yeah, I have a friend who's really into the Lord of the Rings supplementary stuff, and he was telling me about how eventually the stuff leads into our world, and WWII actually happens sometime in the ninth age, or something?

Didn't Bombadil come from a short story he wrote, originally, with no ties to the Lord of the Rings? I honestly don't remember where I heard this, but I thought I did, somewhere. Also, I feel like if he was taken out, the entire book would feel far too tense and as if there was no way the Hobbits could have survived far enough to hit Elrond.

Also Tom's bit is the only good bit in the trilogy.

Well, duh. :P I'm just saying it makes a certain amount of simplistic sense, seeing as, in fact, the real kicker is that in OE, "Beorn" as a surename was taken to mean: "a warrior, a hero, a man of valour" (also, poetic "man").
This is correct. Bombadil predates LotR, and first appeared in a poem published in the Oxford Magazine in 1933. (So he actually predates The Hobbit, too.)

About Tom Bombadil's nature, esp re: the reference to Tom:God, in Tolkien's own words, from a letter written in 1954 (Letters of JRR Tolkien No. 153):

I think I will just drop out of this discussion before my brain implodes.

I refuse to believe that Bombadil is Eru Illuvatar. No fucking way!

Santa Claus is also the Easter Bunny. Think about it. It makes sense.