Tom and Goldberry's First Meeting

Old Tom Bombadil was a merry fellow;
bright blue his jacket was and his boots were yellow,
green were his girdle and his breeches all of leather;
he wore in his tall hat a swan-wing feather.
He lived up under Hill, where the Withywindle
ran from a grassy well down into the dingle.

Old Tom in summertime walked about the meadows
gathering the buttercups, running after shadows,
tickling the bumblebees that buzzed among the flowers,
sitting by the waterside for hours upon hours.

There his beard dangled long down into the water:
up came Goldberry, the River-woman’s daughter;
pulled Tom’s hanging hair. In he went a-wallowing
under the water-lilies, bubbling and a-swallowing.

‘Hey, Tom Bombadil! Whither are you going?’
said fair Goldberry. ‘Bubbles you are blowing,
frightening the finny fish and the brown water-rat,
startling the dabchicks, and drowning your feather-hat!

(...)

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

watercolour pencils

An illustration for the lovely Tolkien's poem The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, featured in a collection of the same name. And just as the title says, it tells a series of adventures of Tom in a light-hearted and whimsical way, just as he presents himself, starting with his first meeting with Goldberry (depicted here) and ending with their wedding. But keep in mind Tolkien himself describes it as a hobbits' poem inspired by their encounters with Bombadil, so the story is not necessarily canonical (just like the the Sam's rhyme "Troll sat alone on his seat of stone" I illustrated some time ago).

I've wanted to make an illustration of Tom and Goldberry for a long time. It was even my part of an art trade with , I didn't manage to carry out for a long time (her part was a picture of young Elrond and Elros: childhood ). I had originally a very different idea: I wanted to draw Tom sitting on willow roots and Goldberry dancing on the water surface, lightly touching his hand. I made some sketches, started drawing it, but somehow it didn't work well and I wasn't satisfied with it, so it was left unfinished for a long time. But finally new impulse came with a monthly challenge on the Projekt ilustrace website. The monthly theme was "vodník" (a water spirit of Czech folklore, who often pulls unwary people into rivers or ponds), but it was open for original interpretations, so I got the idea to draw this scene, where Golberry (who is herself undoubtedly a water spirit) plays a role similar to a vodník. So what do you think about it?

Also, to share some thoughts about the way I compose illustrations such as this one, I've described my art process here: