TCG Letter #464

Christopher Fettes had written to Tolkien asking why he referred to both Tom Bombadil and Treebeard as the "oldest beings in Middle-earth". In Tolkien's reply he says "I think there are two answers; (i) External (ii) Internal; according to (i) Bombadil just came into my mind independently and got swept up into the growing stream of The Lord of the Rings." The extract was published in Amon Hen 173 (2002).