Tom Bombadil is a supporting character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He appears in Tolkien's high fantaisie epic The Lord of the Rings, published in 1954 and 1955. In the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo Baggins and company meet Bombadil in the Old Forest. He appears in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, a book of verse first published in 1962, purporting to be a selection of Hobbit poems, two of which concern Bombadil.Tom Bombadil is a spry fellow, with a quick, playful wit. He speaks in a rhyming whimsical way: "Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow! Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!" He has a jolly, carefree attitude, and very little seems to concern him. He sometimes refers to himself in the third person, as if simultaneously weaving his own epic narrative, even as he lives it.