There have been many articles written and guesses made about the true nature of the character Tom Bombadil in the Lord of the Rings, and his wife Goldberry. These two are presented very mysteriously by Tolkien in his famous work, and it is never quite revealed what they actually are, or where they came from. All that is really portrayed, especially from the young hobbits Merry, Pippin, Frodo and Sam, who are still naive at this beginning part of their journey, having just left The Shire is that Tom and Goldberry are very ethereal, very powerful ancient beings.
They both have a strange connection to the nature around them, especially to the earth of the Old Forest, and there is a sort of timelessness about them that makes them seem as if they exist somewhere between the realms of Middle Earth and the heavens beyond. They both show extraordinary resilience to the One Ring of power, and seem only to care for the Hobbits, to comfort them, and to prepare them for the long and trialing times that they will face ahead. But some fans have begun connecting the dots with some of Tolkien’s other works, and believe that Tom Bombadil and Goldberry may actually be two of the Ainur in disguise.
The Ainur are the very first beings created by Eru Illuvatar, long before Middle Earth came into being, and they each had a part to play in sculpting the world ready for Elves and Men to inhabit. Two of the most notable of the Ainur are Aule (who formed the vast peaks of the mountains and the deep divots of the sea) and his wife Yvanna (who helped life spring into the lands by nurturing things that grow) and many fans believe that they may actually be the secret alter-ego’s behind Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry. For example:
Aule was responsible for ‘The fashioning of all lands was his labor, he is a smith and a master of all crafts, and he delights in works of skill, however small, as much as in the building of old. His are the mighty gems that lie deep in the Earth, and the gold that is fair in the hand, no less than the walls of the mountains and the basins of the sea.’ and there are many echos of this with Tom Bombadil, who is described as ‘the master of wood, water and hill.’
When Frodo and the others are walking with Tom Bombadil in his house, they follow his conversation that takes them on a vast journey: ‘When they caught his words again, they found that he now had wandered into strange regions beyond their memory and beyond their waking thought, into times when the world was wider, and the seas flowed straight into the western shore, and still on and back Tom went singing out into ancient starlight, when only the Elf-sires were awake.’ This shows that Tom certainly has the age and the knowledge of the Ainur, and came into being possibly even before the First Age of the world. He tells them: “Mark my words, my friends - 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.”
The way Tom relates his tale gives the essence that he helped to build these things, which would certainly fit if he were in fact Aule. The same goes for Goldberry, and her similarities with Yvanna, who is known as "the Giver of Fruits. She is a lover of all things that grow in the earth, and all their countless forms she holds in her mind from the trees like towers in forests long ago to the moss upon the stones or the small and secret things in the mold" and "In the form of a woman she is tall, and robed in green, but at times she takes other shapes. Some there are who have seen her standing like a tree under the heavens, crowned with the sun. And from all its branches there spilled a golden dew upon the barren earth, and it grew with green corn; but the roots of the tree were in the waters of Ulmo, and the winds of Manwe spoke in its leaves."
This very earthy, very nature-related image of Yvanna is echoed within when Frodo and the others first meet Goldberry, and report that ‘Her long yellow hair rippled down her shoulders, her gown was green, green as young reeds, shot with silver like beads of dew, and her belt was of gold, shaped like a chain of flag lilies set with the pale-blue eyes of forget-me-nots.’
There are so many obvious parallels between the characters, and it is well known that the Ainur loved Middle Earth, and loved the creations of Illuvatar, so it is highly plausible that they disguise themselves as Tom Bombadil and Goldberry in order to walk among the world and its peoples without revealing their true might and power. Perhaps some beings (maybe Gandalf for example) know of their true identity, but would never reveal it, or perhaps they have created such an air of mystery surrounding themselves and their origins that no one knows their true connections to the creator of all.