Goldberry

As portrayed in The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game Goldberry Biographical information Other names The River-daughter Birth Unknown Spouse Tom Bombadil Physical description Race Unknown (possibly River-spirit) Gender Female Hair Golden Media portrayal Actor Regina Lialeikite (Khraniteli) Goldberry, the "River-daughter", was the wife of Tom Bombadil in the Old Forest at the edge of Buckland.

Little is known of the origin and nature of Goldberry except that it is implicited that she is a river-spirit of the river Withywindle, given she is said to be the River-woman's daughter.

The River-daughter

When Tom Bombadil ventured into the Eriador region, several of the valley's mysterious residents, including Goldberry, attempted to capture Bombadil for their own ends, but quail at the power of Tom's voice, which defeated their enchantments and commands them to return to their natural existence. However, according to a tale, Goldberry was in the Withywindle when she pulled Tom by his beard under the water-lilies out of mischief, but he ordered her to let him free. The next day he came to the River-woman and asked Goldberry to be his wife, and the creatures of the Old Forest (the badger-folk and other animals) attended their wedding.[1]

While it is unclear when Goldberry moved into a house by the river Withywindle in the Old Forest with Tom, it is clear that they were already living there when the Third Age began. Like Tom, she also occasionally interacted with hobbits, specifically Bucklanders, after they settled in the place that would become the Shire.

Goldberry apparently also had contact with the elves who lived in Eriador, having related to them enough to know in a conversation if other peoples were on good terms with them.

In 3018 Tom Bombadil travelled to the lower reaches of the Withywindle to gather white water-lilies for her, and it was while returning from a lily-gathering expedition that he discovered Frodo Baggins and his companions, and rescued them from Old Man Willow. Goldberry seems to have used her lilies to recreate her original home in the river: when Tom brought the hobbits back to his house, they found a seated Goldberry surrounded by water-lilies floating in pots of earthenware.[2]

Goldberry hosted the hobbits and they found her to be as mysterious as Tom, but were grateful for her kindness to them and were enchanted by her presence. She then explained a little about Tom to the group and then asked them to clean up to have dinner with them. The next day, while washing the house, she interrupted Bombadil when he told the hobbits of their origin and called them to eat. The next morning she said goodbye to Frodo and the others when they left for the Barrow-downs.[3]

After rescuing the hobbits from the Barrow-downs, Tom Bombadil selected a brooch with blue stones from the hoard of the Barrow-wights to give Goldberry.[4]

Goldberry was as beautiful and youthful as an Elf-Queen, with long yellow hair that "rippled down her shoulders", fair skin, a clear voice that was "as young and as ancient as Spring, like the song of a glad water flowing down into the night from a bright morning in the hills", and she moved with a "slender grace" that delighted those who observed her. The Hobbits also noted that she was always beautifully-dressed: during their first meeting with her, "her gown was green, as green as young reeds, shot with silver like beads of dew; and her belt was of gold, shaped like a chain of flag-lilies set with the pale-blue eyes of forget-me-nots". Later on, she was "clothed all in silver with a white girdle, and her shoes were like fishes' mail". Frodo went on to reflect to himself that, while Goldberry's extreme beauty and lovely voice were similar to those of the Elves, there was still a remarkable difference, for her charms were "less keen and lofty" than the Elves', but also "deeper and nearer to mortal heart; marvellous and yet not strange".

Goldberry in the Old Forest surrounded by a pool of water-lilies, by Sara Morello

Although Goldberry's origins are uncertain, Bombadil clearly identifies her as having been found by him in the river and her title "River-woman's daughter" strongly suggests that she is not a mortal human being, but rather a spirit of the river Withywindle in the Old Forest. This is similar to the many named river spirits of traditional English folklore such as Jenny Greenteeth or Peg Powler of the River Tees,[5] (though Goldberry is a noticeably gentler figure), or to the naiads of the Greeks. Otherwise, she and Bombadil are enigmas in Legendarium, not fitting easily into any of his definitions of sentient beings in his world.

One frequently proposed explanation is that she is a (minor) Maia associated with the element of water and in some way with the river Withywindle in particular, though that is by no means the only possible answer John D. Rateliff suggested that, at least in terms of Tolkien's early mythology, she should be seen as one of the wide category of fays, spirits, and elementals (including the Maia): "Thus Melian is a 'fay', (as, in all probability, are Goldberry and Bombadil; the one a nymph, the other a genius loci).[6]

In The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Tolkien describes Goldberry as the seasonal changes in nature, and Tom Bombadil as the nature spirit of the English countryside.[7]

Tolkien based his mythic personages on Eurasian myth and cosmology: The Great Goddess who is mother of all things was, before Time existed, the element of water, undifferentiated. Time begins when her first offspring is born, and, according to Tom Bombadil, he is the Eldest, or first-born. The River is the local manifestation of the primal Great Goddess, and Goldberry is her daughter, the spirit of all local waters existing in Time, alive and embodied. Both Tom and Goldberry are primal spirits of nature, he of the land and its produce and she of the water.[8] In early Eurasian myth, the element of water is feminine and the land or earth is masculine; therefore, Goldberry represents the female principle of life while Tom represents the male.[9] Together as husband and wife they are the totality of primal Nature, endlessly proceeding in an eternal circle from season to season forever.

Goldberry is heard in the 1955 The Lord of the Rings radio series, possibly voiced by Nicolette Bernard. In the Tales from the Perilous Realm 1992 radio series, she is voiced by Sorcha Cusack.

She appears in the The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, voiced by Kath Soucie.

Goldberry was portrayed in a short film produced by fans at TheOneRing.net.

Goldberry in Khraniteli, played by Regina Lialeikite

In the recently rediscovered Khraniteli, Goldberry makes an appearance in Part One, where she is played by Regina Lialeikite.

In The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game, Goldberry is portrayed by Amanda Niel.