My new theory on Tom Bombadil

[Elanor]

I was recently rereading the Fellowship of the Ring, and during the Tom Bombadil part I thought deeply about what he might be. I know that JRR Tolkien mostly leaves it a mystery but I also think he wants us to speculate (feel free to argue after you've read it), so here's one you probably haven't heard before. Tom Bombadil is simply part of the Music. Here's what I mean:

But when the Valar entered into Ea they were at first astounded and at a loss, for it was as if naught was yet made which they had seen in vision, and all was but on point to begin and yet unshaped, and it was dark. For the Great Music had been but the growth and flowering of thought in the Timeless Halls, and the Vision only a foreshowing, but now they had entered into the beginning of Time . . . but Melkor too was there from the first. --Ainulindale

So when did Tom Bombadil arrive on the scene?

Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless--before the Dark Lord came from Outside. --In the House of Tom Bombadil

I think the Dark Lord Tom refers to is Melkor. Although Sauron came from Outside early on, at that time Sauron wasn't THE Dark Lord. Therefore Tom had to be there before Melkor or the Valar arrived; he can't be either a Vala or a Maia. I would suggest that Goldberry is a spirit of the water, and that there are many such "spirits" that are also in a way, part of the Music of the Ainur.

And it is said by the Eldar that in water there live yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance else that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Iluvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and know not for what they listen. --Ainulindale

But since Goldberry came from the river Withywindle, and Tom was there before the rivers were even shaped, I would suggest that he is not a "spirit" but is more directly part of Iluvatar's Music of creation.

"He is the Master of water, wood, and hill"--he he has complete power over that little area in the North of Arda--but "Tom's country ends here: he will not pass the borders."

The clue that mostly gave me this idea, though, is the way Tom talks. He sings almost constantly, and makes it up as he goes along, unlike the other songs in LotR which are completely made up before they're spoken. Even when he's not singing, almost everything he says fits a specific rhythm. Try reading his dialogue out loud sometime and if you have a good sense of rhythm you'll catch it. Sometimes it's more obvious than other times, especially when he's happy. It's as if one little melody of Iluvatar got stuck in a specific place in Middle-Earth and just kept on singing.

So is he the oldest of anyone? He's older than Treebeard, who was made by Yavanna after she came to Ea. But he's younger than all the Ainur, who sang him into being.