Bombadil & little old men in fairy tales

[Balfrog]

A new set of articles from Ms. Priya Seth start off by asking the reader to consider whether a ‘faerie’ was envisioned in Middle–earth (other than the pseudo ones of the Elven dominions) and whether Tom Bombadil existed on the boundaries of it.

https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpres...-to-fairyland/

Perhaps the most interesting part is Tom’s seeming further connection to fairy tale as the ‘little old man’ in two other fairy-stories. Already discussed (in What a Colorful Pair – Part IV) is Tom potentially playing the fairy-role in Jack and the Beanstalk. Extending that theme, the author links bits of The Fellowship of the Ring text to two more fairy tales:

(a) The Blue Mountains
(b) The Little Folk’s Presents’.

Here we see what she calls ‘fractured’ repeats of the little old man theme’ specifically with respect to the texts’:

(a) “there was Tom whistling like a tree full of birds”
(b) “he clapped them each on the shoulders with a laugh”.

If true – there is a deeper layer to the Bombadil episode – that Tolkien inserted. The resulting implication is that Tom is a creature of faerie. But which faerie and where is what needs explanation.