On: Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom ...

[dekhn]

Agreed 100%. He's an aspect of nature in physical form, with all the danger and ambiguity that nature brings.

[JoeAltmaier → dekhn]

He is underneath nature, primal and original. The ring was nothing to him; it changed things in such a trivial way, to his understanding, as to be irrelevant.

[ticviking → dekhn]

I think there's a good argument that he is nature.

Nature in middle earth tends to be mildly kind and hospitable, but does not care about evil. Which matches up to Tom pretty closely.