The Glory of Goldberry's Washing Day
- Miriam Ellis
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
A gentle rain is one of nature's loveliest gifts. Have you ever been in a garden during a sunshower? Then, you may have felt the plants come more alive and seen them glow in the light as rain comes down and moisture rises up in return from the wet, warm earth. I think that Goldberry's washing day would have felt like this, making its many mysteries something we can experience, at least in part, in the primary world.
What is Goldberry's washing day? We can't know, precisely. We have no explanation of whether this lady is making rain occur around the house of Tom Bombadil so that its paths become chalky streams flowing downhill toward the River Withywindle. Perhaps she is doing this, or perhaps she is merely reverencing a particular kind of shower that graces the land, and this is what she is singing about when Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin are called away from their breakfast by the lovely sound of her voice emanating from somewhere overhead.
J.R.R. Tolkien doesn't tell us quite where Goldberry is, and so I have had to think this through. I think our best clue is that the house has an upstairs, and so I thought her bedroom might feature a balcony overlooking the grounds, with a humorous view of Tom hopping about below.
This glimpse of the garden is but partial, giving a sense of the runner bean vines and some of the delicious herbs and berries that star on the house menu. There are wild raspberry canes, watermint, dock, hyssop, chamomile, dill, yellow flags, and a wild rose twining up to the bower. I have mapped out this house in full for my own research to the best of my understanding. I love the naturalness of its stone and thatch - almost like a beaver lodge amid pervasive water. What could be more fitting for the River-daughter?
The door Tom has just come splashing out of leads to the kitchen, and the greenhouse-like window is the same one you see above by the dining table.
However, you cannot see the hobbit penthouse in the new painting, because it is at the other end of the dwelling with views out back to the bean vines and hilltop and, in front, down toward the Old Forest. Isn't it curious to think of all the vigorous life going on in this enchanted house, bordered by the perilous wood and the Barrow-downs? Tom and Goldberry are apparently unaffected by such uncomfortable circumstances.
Goldberry goes about singing and laughing while Tom wreaths his head in leaves and flowers, as merry as a bumblebee. I hoped to show their imperviousness to worldliness with the dark shower become a sunshower over their roof, thanks to their deep but light hearts.
Have you ever wondered if Tom and Goldberry's house still exists somewhere in Middle-earth? He is "oldest and fatherless", and she is more like a force of nature than a mortal being. Isn't it exciting to suppose they may be with us yet, and in painting this new scene, I wondered what their abode might look like today.
Might it have solar panels on its roof to protect the earth? Might its organic gardens have expanded to feed more wanderers on hard Roads? It's difficult not to wish that the little hobbits might have stayed forever amid the joyful hospitality of this remarkable couple. I find their way of life aspirational.
Please come enjoy Goldberry's washing day in this winsome video short: