Hey dol! Merry dol! The rumour-mill for Rings of Power Season Two has just thrown up a crazy one — Tom Bombadil has supposedly been sighted on the set.

TORn Tuesday’s source “Green Dragon Gossip” said that the actor was — in the diagloue — being called Tom.

Quickbeam: Tom? Hmmm. Do you think that’s a possible Tom Bombadil coming to visit the show?

Staffer Justin: It’s 100 per cent Tom Bombadil. That’s what they’re [the source] saying. Tom Bombadil has been cast and will show up in Season Two.

TORn Tuesday broadcast Jan 3, 2022.

Fellowship of the Fans recently tweeted what appears to be a cast codename list. We’re unsure whether this is related to our new Bombadil-sized rumour, however Tom Bombadil would have a codename to help keep his identity secret. However, Green Dragon Gossip states that people on set are hearing dialogue of characters talking to him and using the name “Tom”.

TORn Tuesday has not been able to independently verify this rumour. However, DrNosy, one of TORn’s Discord mods, has heard the self-same rumour in recent days from a source close to the production and clarifies that the code-name for the character is “Errol Pram”.


This is certainly some powerful fan catnip. One speculates that — if true — the existing storyline that it would make the most sense to append a Tom Bombadil appearance (a one-episode cameo, perhaps?) would be that of The Stranger and Nori.

That might seem at odds with the stay-at-home nature of Tom that we see in The Lord of the Rings where he declines to step beyond the self-defined borders of his own country, but the Council of Elrond infers that this was not always the case.

And now [emphasis added] he is withdrawn into a little land, within bounds that he has set, though none can see them, waiting perhaps for a change of days, and he will not step beyond them.

Gandalf at The Council of Elrond, The Lord of the Rings

Enormous debates are springing up on the TORn Discord about whether including Tom Bombadil — even as a cameo — is a good idea in an alrerady-weighty production. If you’d like to join our chat, come to Discord.gg/theonering.

Over on Twitter, Fellowship of the Fans (FOTF) has posted some new rumours about LOTR on Prime’s series that are sure to provoke head-scratching and even more rampant theorising about the composition of the initial two episodes.

Warning: these are, potentially, spoilers. If that’s important to you, what are you even doing here? Run away!

Photo by Stewart Cook/Variety/Shutterstock (5813163v) Robert Aramayo Discovery’s ‘Harley and the Davidsons’ Party, TCA Summer Press Tour, Day 5, Los Angeles, USA – 01 Aug 2016

According to Fellowship of the Fans’ sources:

  1. Actor Robert Aramayo was on the production’s dwarven sets and filmed scenes with the dwarves.
  2. Actor Owain Arthur plays an important dwarven character in the same scenes.
  3. The dwarves wear “amazing dragon/dragon scale armour”.
  4. The dwarven king is said to look strikingly similar to Tormund from the HBO Game of Thrones telly series.
  5. Scenes in the first two episodes will show dwarves climbing a mountain, or ravine, and there is an “underground pub set piece”.

You can read the full run-down here.

However, dwarven sets? Is this cold water being tipped over the Year of the Trees brigade? Regardless, the Valinor image still exists and it seems beyond belief that the production would lead with an image like that purely as fan catnip.

Keep in mind, this is not confirmed, while the Valinor image is most certainly official.

But it may be that that segment is shorter than we want to believe. Maybe it’s a short PJ-style prologue per Fellowship of the Rings. Because dwarves do not belong in Aman (unless it’s in Aulë’s workshop, or your name is Gimli), and the most natural place for dwarves and elves to be seen together is Eregion and Khazad-dûm, during the Second Age.

If it is Second age, the dwarven king is likely to be Durin III. Owain Arthur might be Narvi. Narvi most famously had a close friendship with Celebrimbor, but I wonder whether Celeborn might fit in there somewhere too.

Food for thought.