The Riddle of Tom Bombadil

[trolls' bane]

I checked for another thread on this, but all I could find was this thread.

Anyway, it says it all here. Let me know if it doesn't work or it only shows a picture. I was thinking about this some months ago when I read it, and I thought about some of the theories (well, I actually read only the part titled "Tom Bombadil Within Tolkein's Cosmology"). Especially the one: "Was Tom Bombadil Illuvatar Himself?"
Though he said he was here before the dark lord came (something like that), and as the article states Morgoth was the first of the Valar or any of the powers in Arda, or Ea (how do you people put the accent marks and like symbols on specific letters, anyway?), it doesn't mean he was there before Morgoth came the first time, does it? Because if I remember right, in the first chapters of the Silmarillion, at some point he left. Couldn't that mean when he came and ambushed the Valar and Maia on whatever island they lived on in whatever lake, when he cast down the lamps? Or, could it possibly mean when he came back to Middle Earth after his imprisonment in Valinor? The last one I mentioned is least likely (to me) because he seemed more man than elf, and was rather short, while elves are known to be tall.

Comments or theories welcome .