Goldberry, the River-daughter, was the wife of Tom Bombadil. The hobbits met her in Tom's house on the edge of the Old Forest, after he had freed Merry and Pippin from Old Man Willow. She sat in a green gown among bowls of water-lilies, with her golden hair about her, and welcomed them with a song.1
Frodo found himself speaking to her in words that seemed strange in his own mouth. When he asked who Tom Bombadil was, she answered, in reply to his look.1
He is the Master of wood, water, and hill.
It rained the next day, which Tom said was Goldberry's washing-day and her autumn-cleaning. When the hobbits left, she stood on the hilltop above the house, calling them farewell, with the light on her hair.1,2
The poem The Adventures of Tom Bombadil tells how they met: the River-woman's daughter pulled Tom into the Withywindle by his beard, and later he caught her and carried her home as his bride.3
Tolkien never explained what she was. In a letter about a proposed film he wrote that she represented the actual seasonal changes in such lands.4
Sources
Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.
- Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
- Tolkien's letters Tolkien explaining his own work. Authoritative on intent, but private and sometimes provisional.
- Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 7, “In the House of Tom Bombadil”
- Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 8, “Fog on the Barrow-downs”
- Published story The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962), poem 1, “The Adventures of Tom Bombadil”
- Tolkien's letters Letter 210, to Forrest J. Ackerman (1958)