Down the Withywindle

[clodia_metelli]

Author: clodia_metelli
Title: Down the Withywindle
Rating: G
Theme: Short and Sweet
Author's Notes: A fixed-length ficlet written for lotr_community's July Challenge, with borrowings from ‘The Adventures of Tom Bombadil’ in Tales from the Perilous Realm (2002). I am not Tolkien and I make no money from this.
Summary: Tom Bombadil goes a-courting... unsuccessfully.
Word Count

Comments

[clodia_metelli]

Heh, thanks! I'm glad you like it! I did borrow the odd bit from Tolkien's Tom, though, as per the notes. I know this is a minority viewpoint, but I've always been rather fond of Tom and Goldberry and their whimsical, treacherous pocket of Middle-earth. ^^

[lindahoyland]

Just lovely and the photo enhances my enjoyment and creates a lovely atmosphere.

[clodia_metelli]

Oh wonderful, I'm so glad you feel that way! I realised I had so many green pictures of the riverside taken back in May that it would be silly not to bring at least one out for Goldberry the River's daughter. Even if it's not a willow-lined bank. It's lovely to hear you like it, thank you! ^^

[werdrachin]

Beautiful! The photo is well chosen: this would be the ideal place for Tom Bombadil to flirt with a river-maiden. From now on, whenever I'll see a running water blinking golden in the sun, with leaves floating on its surface, and hear the babble of the water sounding like silvery laughter, I'll think of this little literary gemstone.

[clodia_metelli]

That's really such a sweet thing to say, thank you! It was a lovely day when I took that picture: one of the depressingly few really sunny days this year, and I think it was back around Easter time. *sigh*

[auroramama]

I always wondered what Goldberry saw in him - but apparently I require heavenly intervention to make me find a trickster desirable. Am I seeing a little of the nymph's reply to the shepherd in this? Or is that just my less-than-appreciative bias re Tom?

I should be more sympathetic. Fatherless and motherless, he had no one to explain courtship to him but the seasons and the birds. At least he didn't boast about making his chest big and red.

[clodia_metelli]

It is an interesting question, I agree! they are a very strange couple. When I wrote this, it gave me the vague idea of continuing the story in triple drabbles. I haven't got around to that yet; but maybe I will one day. I'm rather fond of them both, although I know that's a bit of a minority view.

Thank you for reading, anyway, and for taking the time to comment! It's always good to hear from people dropping by.

[someplacetobe]

I knew I'd read this before and was delighted to read it again!

How lovely to see Tom and Goldberry during their courtship and not as the domestic couple from LotR; they wouldn't always have been that couple and this was a nice glimpse at them before they were 'domestic'.

[clodia_metelli]

Heh, I'm delighted you enjoyed it as much the second time through! I may still extend this into other snippets someday; but my list of things-to-be-written expands much faster than my list of things-written, so... who knows?

[someplacetobe]

If you do expand it, in any way, I'd look forward to reading it; I enjoy Tom and Goldberry stories.