Elrondrådet diskuterar att Bombadil ska hjälpa till:
[Elrond]: But I had forgotten Bombadil, if indeed this is still the same that walked the woods and hills long ago, and even then was older than the old. That was not then his name. Iarwain Ben-adar we called him, oldest and fatherless. But many another name he has since been given by other folk: Forn by the Dwarves, Orald by Northern Men, and other names beside. He is a strange creature, but maybe I should have summoned him to our Council.'
'He would not have come,' said Gandalf.
'Could we not still send messages to him and obtain his help?' asked Erestor. 'It seems that he has a power even over the Ring.'
'No, I should not put it so,' said Gandalf. 'Say rather that the Ring has no power over him. He is his own master. But he cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break its power over others. And now he is withdrawn into a little land, within bounds that he has set, though none can see them, waiting perhaps for a change of days, and he will not step beyond them.'
'But within those bounds nothing seems to dismay him,' said Erestor. 'Would he not take the Ring and keep it there, for ever harmless?'
'No,' said Gandalf, 'not willingly. He might do so, if all the free folk of the world begged him, but he would not understand the need. And if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian; and that alone is answer enough.'
Han vågade inte heller från sitt land eller vara tillräckligt pålitlig för att bära Ring till Mordor. Gandalf säger att han inte ens skulle komma till Rivendell om han frågades. Men om han bad, kunde han ha tagit ringen för att hålla, men "om han fick ringen, skulle han snart glömma det, eller förmodligen slänga bort det." Han bryr sig inte om Ring och Sauron som alla andra gör, och han kan inte göras till.
Om han inte skulle resa utanför landet för att komma till Rivendell, och om han skulle glömma ringen eller slänga bort den om han hade det - den ring som försökte återvända till Sauron - kunde han ha varit övertalade att gå till Mordor eller lita på att fullfölja uppdraget?I might put it this way. The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. But if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless. It is a natural pacifist view, which always arises in the mind when there is a war.
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien 144: To Naomi Mitchison. April 1954
Bombadil kunde inte ha gjort det.