BLAM Literature Discussion

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Fiwen9430 Since: Apr, 2010

Jan 6th 2011 at 6:49:32 PM •••

Removed entry:

The Tom Bombadil chapter in The Lord of the Rings. Merry does receive the sword he uses to help kill the Witch-King here... but that's a whole lot of BLAM for one plot point.
- Tolkien himself stated that he considered the Tom Bombadil sequence one of the most important sequences in the entire LotR story. From a story perspective, he represents the mystery that remains even after a reader thinks he knows all there is to know about Middle Earth and represents what could be lost. From a writing perspective, he gives Tolkien a chance to present backstory exposition in a way that interests the reader.
  - But it's that very "mystery that remains even after a reader thinks he knows all there is to know about Middle Earth" thing that backfires. The "mystery" is such that the scene completely fails to fit/connect with any of the story so far, and after reading the rest of the book still no connection or point of contact has come to light. Even after reading the posthumously-published works which give vastly more of the backstory than is in LOTR itself, this still remains the case. Tolkien overdid the "mystery" to the point that it turns into pure simple bafflement, and fails as a result. The sequence certainly fits the criterion that you can cut it out completely and it doesn't make any difference apart from shortening the story... as the film adaptation demonstrated.

The point of the natter seems to be that the Tom Bombadil episode can be cut out of the story without affecting it and therefore qualify as a BLAM. However, since it fits none of the other qualifiers (it is mentioned again, there are a couple of plot points- swords and Frodo's dreams-, there is significant character development-the test in the Barrow 'perhaps the most dangerous moment of all') in those 3 chapters, it can't qualify as a BLAM. The fact that it lasts for 3 chapters is also another criteria that doesn't fit.

Edited by Fiwen9430 Hide / Show Replies

Bense Since: Aug, 2010

Sep 29th 2014 at 8:45:20 AM •••

I agree. Tom Bombadil is not really a BLAM. The incident is actually mentioned again at least twice - once at the Council of Elrond, and once at the end of Return of the King, when Gandalf goes off to meet with Bombadil.

Bense Since: Aug, 2010

Sep 29th 2014 at 8:46:22 AM •••

Legolas saying he's going to go find the sun isn't a BLAM either, it's just Legolas making a joke.

SN1063 Since: Jan, 2017

Oct 30th 2019 at 6:16:03 PM •••

Removed the Bombadil and Legolas/sun bits again (including the natter):

The entire two or three chapters featuring the hobbits' adventures with Tom Bombadil in The Lord of the Rings is a very lengthy BLAM chiefly about singing excruciatingly bad folk songs and talking about how awesome Goldberry is. Actual connections to the plot of the rest of the book amount to: (a) the One Ring doesn't work on Bombadil - which gets one mention at the Council of Elrond - and (b) leaving the Old Forest you might trip over a wight and wind up with a cool Numenoréan sword.
- May not qualify because the sequence with Bombadil and the wight does explain why the cool Numenoréan sword had enchantments on it capable of unbinding the Witch King's undead flesh and making him vulnerable to an ordinary sword long enough to be killed.
- There's a smaller one in Fellowship of the Ring when the party is struggling to climb blizzard-ridden Caradhras. Legolas announces that he's "going south to find the sun" and runs off across the top of the snow. He comes back a little bit later explaining that the sun is warm and happy down south and can't be bothered to thwart the blizzard.
  - Although it's clear in context that Legolas is not saying the Sun has actually wandered off somewhere, but only finding a laughing way to say that the storm is confined to the mountain, and the Fellowship doesn't have to go very far to get out of it.


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Discussion BLAM / Literature