# Weather master?



## Ithrynluin (May 16, 2005)

In '_The Fellowship of the Ring; In the House of Tom Bombadil_' we have:



> Frodo laughed (trying to feel pleased), and taking off the Ring he came and sat down again. Tom now told them that he reckoned the Sun would shine tomorrow, and it would be a glad morning, and setting out would be hopeful. But they would do well to start early; for weather in that country was a thing that even Tom could not be sure of for long, and it would change sometimes quicker than he could change his jacket. ‘I am no weather-master,’ he said; ‘nor is aught that goes on two legs.’



Then, later on, in '_The Ring Goes South_':



> Gandalf halted. Snow was thick on his hood and shoulders; it was already ankle-deep about his boots.
> "This is what I feared,' he said. `What do you say now, Aragorn?'
> 'That I feared it too,' Aragorn answered, `but less than other things. I knew the risk of snow, though it seldom falls heavily so far south, save high up in the mountains. But we are not high yet; we are still far down, where the paths are usually open all the winter.'
> '*I wonder if this is a contrivance of the Enemy*,' said Boromir. "*They say in my land that he can govern the storms in the Mountains of Shadow* that stand upon the borders of Mordor. He has strange powers and many allies.'
> ...



How likely do you think it is that it is Sauron tinkering with the weather, either over Moria, or closer to his own abode?

Do you take the statements by Bombadil and Boromir with a grain of salt, or do you give one more weight than the other?


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## Inderjit S (May 16, 2005)

I think Sauron had some power over the weather-though that would have been closer to his borders, he was after all a very powerful Ainur and could problably conjure up thunder and lightning as Boromir claims. The Witch-King was also attributed with having weather influencing powers.


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## Ithrynluin (May 16, 2005)

Inderjit S said:


> I think Sauron had some power over the weather-though that would have been closer to his borders, he was after all a very powerful Ainur and could problably conjure up thunder and lightning as Boromir claims. The Witch-King was also attributed with having weather influencing powers.



Then you think Tom was mistaken, since both Sauron and the Witch-king walk on two legs?


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## Inderjit S (May 16, 2005)

Perhaps by "two legs" he meant normal beings: Elves, Dwarves and Men not evil Maia or Wraiths.


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## Starbrow (May 17, 2005)

I always assumed that when Bombadil was talking about a weather-master he was referring to the ability to predict the weather, not control it. That seems to make more sense in the context of the paragraph. The implication is that animals are weather-masters and he certainly doesn't mean that animals can control the weather.
But I also don't think he really meant the Maia when he referred to the two-legged. After all can't some Maia assume different forms other that of a person. If a Maia can move an island, I don't think moving some clouds around would be that difficult for one.


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## Arat Macar (May 17, 2005)

Tom is an interesting character in that he was so removed from much of what was happining in middle earth at the time of Frodo. It is possible to be both very wise and very out of touch. 

I never thought about the animal point, though I think it a good one. Why specify "two legs" except to contrast it against creatures with a different number of legs. My take is that it is a very different thing to have, on the one hand, the power to affect or predict the weather and, on the other hand, mastery over it.

Animals sense changes in the weather more accutely than humans. Sauron affected the weather to a certain extent around Mordor, Saruman around Isenguard. I thought it was Saruman's fell voice that the fellowship heard on the wind in the storm that turned them back to Moria. I see no evidence of anyone or thing in middle earth with mastery over the weather.


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## Barliman Butterbur (May 17, 2005)

Ithrynluin said:


> How likely do you think it is that it is Sauron tinkering with the weather, either over Moria, or closer to his own abode?
> 
> Do you take the statements by Bombadil and Boromir with a grain of salt, or do you give one more weight than the other?



Don't tell anyone — but I've heard rumor for years now, that Bombadil has been working behind the scenes at Weather Underground and NOAA ever since the end of the Third Age...

Barley


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