Tom Bombadil is called the “Master of wood and water” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Tom Bombadil appears during the hobbits’ journey through the Old Forest and the Barrow-downs in The Fellowship of the Ring. He rescues the hobbits from Old Man Willow and later from a barrow-wight. His wife, Goldberry, is associated with the River-woman’s daughter and the surrounding natural world.
Bombadil is an unusual figure because the Ring does not visibly affect him in the way it affects other characters. He can see Frodo when Frodo wears the Ring and treats the object with apparent indifference. At the Council of Elrond, the characters discuss him as powerful within his own land but unsuitable for guarding the Ring or confronting Sauron.
Tolkien deliberately leaves Bombadil’s exact nature mysterious. He is not simply another wizard, Ent, or Maia, and the text does not provide one universally accepted identity. His songs and archaic manner also make him distinct from the major political powers of Middle-earth.