e Tom may be Iluvatar because this simple reply is almost identical to "I am" in God referring to himself in the Bible.
             Tom's ability to control the Ring, rather than allowing the Ring control him also shows him possibly being Iluvatar. "Show me the precious Ring... Then Tom put the Ring around the end of his little finger... There was no sign of Tom disappearing!"(Tolkien, The Lord 144) Up until the Hobbits meet Tom the reader has only seen that the Ring makes the wearer disappear, but in the hands of Tom the Ring seemed to be just another trinket. Yet, the belief that Tom is Iluvatar is quickly dispelled when the Council at Elrond's convenes.
             When meeting at the Council of Elrond and recounting his adventures up to the meeting, Frodo tells the Council of Tom Bombadil. One of the strongest constraints on Bombadil's nature comes from Glorfindel's words at the Council of Elrond. Objecting to Tom as a guardian of the Ring, Glorfindel says, "...soon or late the Lord of the Rings would learn of its hiding place and would bend all his power toward it. Could that power be defied by Bombadil alone? I think not. I think that in the end, if all else is conquered, Bombadil will fall, Last as he was First; and then Night will come."(Tolkien, The Lord 279)
             Unless Glorfindel is flat out wrong, this makes it clear that Bombadil is weaker than Sauron in a direct conflict of "power," whatever that term means (it might well include Sauron's full military strength). Galdor concurs, saying that "Power to defy our Enemy is not in him, unless such power is in the earth itself. And yet we see that Sauron can torture and destroy the very hills." Galdor admits to knowing "little of Iarwain save the name"(Tolkien, The Lord 279), so it must not take great learning to make general statements about his power and perhaps its source. Significantly, nobody at the Council objects to either of these statements. It seems likely t...