Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza

In The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, we have: Merry's remarks indicate that in his dreams or trance he has been experiencing the last hours of the prince of Cardolan. But the barrow-wight is not the ghost of this prince, but one of the evil spirits who came to the mounds some two hundred years after the prince's death, as an agent of the Witch-king of Angmar.

The wights may have been evil men or Maiar, but not the prince. I would say they were unfortunate men who got in the way of the Witch-king's blade or foul breath.

Hi Priya, the answer is in the text as Frodo is perceiving it: The Barrowwight, not the Prince of Cardolan. I think there is not much to discuss about it. At this point Frodo seems to be sure of himself, is clear of mind to consider all his options and sings then for Tom Bombadil. Bit unusual to me in such a situation, but Frodo was Tolkien's little hero. What I found important is underlined and highlighted in the quote.

As he lay there, thinking and getting a hold of himself, he noticed all at once that the darkness was slowly giving way: a pale greenish light was growing round him. It did not at first show him what kind of a place he was in, for the light seemed to be coming out of himself, and from the floor beside him, and had not yet reached the roof or wall. He turned, and there in the cold glow he saw lying beside him Sam, Pippin, and Merry. They were on their backs, and their faces looked deathly pale; and they were clad in white. About them lay many treasures, of gold maybe, though in that light they looked cold and unlovely. On their heads were circlets, gold chains were about their waists, and on their fingers were many rings. Swords lay by their sides, and shields were at their feet. But across their three necks lay one long naked sword. Suddenly a song began: a cold murmur, rising and falling. The voice seemed far away and immeasurably dreary, sometimes high in the air and thin, sometimes like a low moan from the ground. Out of the formless stream of sad but horrible sounds, strings of words would now and again shape themselves: grim, hard, cold words, heartless and miserable. The night was railing against the morning of which it was bereaved, and the cold was cursing the warmth for which it hungered. Frodo was chilled to the marrow. After a while the song became clearer, and with dread in his heart he perceived that it had changed into an incantation:

Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never mare to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts his hand
over dead sea and withered land.

He heard behind his head a creaking and scraping sound. Raising himself on one arm he looked, and saw now in the pale light that they were in a kind of passage which behind them turned a corner. Round the corner a long arm was groping, walking on its fingers towards Sam, who was lying nearest, and towards the hilt of the sword that lay upon him. At first Frodo felt as if he had indeed been turned into stone by the incantation. Then a wild thought of escape came to him. He wondered if he put on the Ring, whether the Barrow-wight would miss him, and he might find some way out. He thought of himself running free over the grass, grieving for Merry, and Sam, and Pippin, but free and alive himself. Gandalf would admit that there had been nothing else he could do. But the courage that had been awakened in him was now too strong: he could not leave his friends so easily. He wavered, groping in his pocket, and then fought with himself again; and as he did so the arm crept nearer. Suddenly resolve hardened in him, and he seized a short sword that lay beside him, and kneeling he stooped low over the bodies of his companions. With what strength he had he hewed at the crawling arm near the wrist, and the hand broke off; but at the same moment the sword splintered up to the hilt. There was a shriek and the light vanished. In the dark there was a snarling noise. Frodo fell forward over Merry, and Merry's face felt cold. All at once back into his mind, from which it had disappeared with the first coming of the fog, came the memory of the house down under the Hill, and of Tom singing. He remembered the rhyme that Tom had taught them. In a small desperate voice he began: _Ho! Tom Bombadil!_ and with that name his voice seemed to grow strong: it had a full and lively sound, and the dark chamber echoed as if to drum and trumpet.

But on the other hand. Númenóreans (Men): In the Akallabêth (The Downfall of Númenor) under Sauron's influence, they sacrificed the faithful. The scene in the Barrow had a sacrificial feel, with the long, naked blade across the hobbits' necks and the incarnation - the dark lord in the song, perhaps Melkor? Could the prince have been swayed as men had been once before?
I am sure this has all been discussed before. It is an interesting topic.

Hello Drifa

I agree with everything you referenced from A Reader’s Companion. But as you’ve seen from my chit chat, Hammond & Scull’s discussion doesn’t go into enough depth for me.

Per your last post - I’ll comment on the ‘sacrificial’ element soon.


Hello Aiks

The sentence you underlined is not necessarily connected to the arm.

Round the corner a long arm was groping, walking on its fingers towards Sam, who was lying nearest, and towards the hilt of the sword that lay upon him. At first Frodo felt as if he had indeed been turned into stone by the incantation. Then a wild thought of escape came to him. He wondered if he put on the Ring, whether the Barrow-wight would miss him, and …

This is one of those occasions where I think we need to examine and ponder the evidence in more detail.

At first, it seems Google AI is in agreement with you !!!


Q. who does the crawling arm in the barrow belong to

Google AI Overview

A. The crawling, severed arm in the barrow belongs to the Barrow-wight itself. 


But it depends on how you ask the question. A different answer is spat out if one asks in a different way:


Google AI Overview

Q. does the barrow-wight animate the crawling arm of the prince of Cardolan


A. Yes, the Barrow-wight in the chapter "Fog on the Barrow-downs" in The Fellowship of the Ring animates the crawling arm. The arm belongs to the dead body of the last Prince of Cardolan, whose corpse the wight inhabits and uses in the barrow


So do Barrow-wights possess their own physical bodies before inhabiting a barrow, or do they take up that of a corpse already laid to rest? Hmm … AI gives conflicting answers. AI is not to be trusted yet … if ever …




Anyhow, I tend to lean towards the crawling arm being a product of remote animation through a spell cast by the Wight (and in an upcoming post I will explain why). Let’s look at the evidence more microscopically and ask ourselves some relevant questions. …





So the arm is walking on fingers.

“… a long arm was groping, walking on its fingers …”.
- The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

Then why is there only one arm?
If it belonged to the Wight, are such creatures just one-armed bandits?

Seems unlikely to me. I don’t think I’ve hit the jackpot with that idea!

Then Tolkien states that the arm is ‘long’ and he never says ‘half an arm’:

“… a long arm was groping, …”.
- The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

So that makes me think that it was an entire arm - all the way to the shoulder. So then I ask myself why didn’t a head become visible too as the arm crept closer to the sword. Try raising your entire arm - the bit below the elbow lies parallel to one’s head!

We must note that Tolkien tells us the arm is walking on its fingers. This directly tells us the locomotion, and thus the traversal of the entire arm, is imparted by ‘walking fingers’. In other words, the fingers aren’t clawing into the ground and dragging along a body behind it.

“… a long arm was groping, walking on its fingers …”.
- The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

Tolkien also tells us that pre-existing bones were stirred:

“A shadow came out of dark places far away, and the bones were stirred in the mounds. Barrow-wights walked in the hollow places …”.
- The Fellowship of the Ring, In The House of Tom Bombadil

An impression given to me is that Barrow-Wights defile and dismember corpses - and thus again the handed limb being separate and on its own fits in.

Also, we know Wights have a skeletal makeup - with a bony head and rings that rattle on their bony fingers. But the crawling arm wasn’t described as skeletal nor was its hand described to possess rings on its fingers. Nor was there any sound from clinking rings mentioned as it made its way towards the hobbits.

“Barrow-wights walked in the hollow places with a clink of rings on cold fingers, …”.
- The Fellowship of the Ring, In The House of Tom Bombadil

“… on your stony pillow lay down your bony head, …”.
-The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, 1934 & 1962 poem

All this tends me to conclude that the arm and associated hand was a preserved yet dismembered part of a corpse laid to rest long ago in the barrow. Indeed, because of its seemingly preserved state - the limb of the last Prince of Cardolan animated and remotely controlled by the Wight further back in the chamber seems quite probable. I’m guessing that is where the bones of the Wight ended up being buried.

“… there was a cry and part of the inner end of the chamber fell in with a crash. Then there was a long trailing shriek, fading away into an unguessable distance; and after that silence.”
- The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs (my underlined emphasis)


But what was Tolkien’s purpose? I think I have a reasonable answer to that!

Hello Aiks and Drifa - I hope you find some of my conclusions below not too far-fetched. Over the years I’ve really scratched my head on what happened inside the barrow, and why too.



… continued from my previous post


Figuring out Tolkien’s intent on the ‘Merry possession’ is always going to be speculative, for the Professor never expanded on the incident in any remark made outside of what was published in The Lord of the Rings. But given his deep thinking nature, we can be reasonably confident that motives were solid. Below is what I can come up with:


Spiritual Possession and Exorcism

One reason, as Aiks has guessed, is linked to Christianity. To be more specific, I think he had a desire to portray its proto-presence in an age long before Christ’s arrival on the planet. This kind of foreshadowing is perhaps subtly hinted at in one of his correspondences:

“In the cosmogony there is a fall: a fall of Angels we should say. Though quite different in form, of course, to that of Christian myth. After all, I believe that legends and myths are largely made of 'truth', and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode; and long ago certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must always reappear.”
- The Letters of JRR Tolkien, Letter #131

The channel employed was one of ‘angelic’ deliverance. Both through Gandalf and, as I have already revealed in this thread, our enigmatic Mr. Bombadil.

Bombadil’s Christian attribution was key for this segment of the adventure. We already saw for the In the House of Tom Bombadil chapter how Christianity was mirrored and then reflected in:

(a) Specific dates of religious significance
(b) Lilies being brought to Goldberry
(c) The pentangle phrasing
(d) The cross shape to Bombadil’s residence
(e) The ‘water to wine’ phrasing

This linkage, as we have also seen, was strengthened in the Fog on the Barrow-downs chapter through:

(a) The allusive referral to baptism
(b) The Lazarus-like tomb door opening
(c) The recalling of souls

So as to the latter, some strengthening to item (c) seems to have been part of Tolkien’s plan. I think the Merry incident, as often portrayed in the New Testament of the Bible, depicted the inhabitation of human bodies by external spirits along with their subsequent exorcism. Tom effectively ‘cleansed’ the hobbits with words of power (much like Jesus had done with His words) demanding the Wight that it (and any resident under its control) must leave:

“Leave your barrow empty“
- The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

And that only the spirits of the hobbits would now inhabit their bodies.

Wake now my merry lads! Wake now and hear me calling!
- The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs


Cruelty and Double Death

Despite Tolkien writing that disembodied spirits constrained to remain on the planet have a latent desire for a living body, it is quite possible that in Tolkien’s mind, the Wight forcefully ordered the wraith of the last Prince of Cardolan to inhabit a hobbit body. The poor prince would then suffer death a second time - but this time, in all probability, via his own sword. The ignominy and cruel joke behind the intended deed was that the slaying would be accomplished by his own (corpse) hand.


A Story behind the Character

Tolkien wrote several times, in different ways, that when inventing a name - it generated a story in his mind. Although the last Prince of Cardolan was never formally assigned a name, nevertheless I think a title was sufficient to generate a background tale giving depth to the greater story.


Ultimate Revenge

There is of course, as Drifa has observed, a sacrificial and symbolic element to the barrow scene. ‘Enemies’ dressed in white garb with the hobbits specifically arrayed with royal circlets and gold belts was intentional imbued symbolism. The intent was to convey defeat of the Dark Lord’s chief princely foes. For black was meant by the dark powers to be triumphant over white. But though Merry, in all likelihood, was attired to mimic the prince (as were two of the other hobbits - giving choices* for the wraith as whom to possess) ultimately and ironically it would be Merry’s barrow blade that would end up being the demise of Sauron’s Black Captain. In a way, Merry had the last laugh!

What I have tried to convey on this subject through these last few posts is a sense of coherency in trying to fit in many of the details to Tolkien’s plot . Only then can I personally come to terms with what is essentially just a partially disclosed storyline. But if others have different ideas - I would love to hear them.



* Why the choice of Merry? Perhaps Sam when comatose simply ‘slept like a log’ (per In The House of Tom Bombadil) and thus the wraith was unable to penetrate his mind to allow entry. Whereas Pippin had already set up a psychic barrier being averse to ‘beings inside other beings’ per his Old Man Willow dream in the previous chapter.

Hello Aiks

Those Fallen Angels could be a reflection to the Roman Gods against this corrupted Roman society? (Not a straight interpretation).

Hmm … interesting idea!

When it comes to Bombadil - I think you could classify him as angel - fallen into Middle-earth. Of the many gods he resembles, the Roman god Mercury reflection is, as I have discussed, an apt personification.




So - having spent a bit of effort over my last nine posts trying to delve into the matter of Merry’s possession, I hope that Plaza readers will appreciate that Tolkien quite possibly had a logical solution in his back pocket. If I’m correct, we can now understand why three hobbits were clothed and arrayed as royalty in identical fashion. We can understand the purpose of the sword lain across their necks and who it belonged to. We can understand why the Wight controlled the crawling arm and who it belonged to. And so, most importantly - we can ascertain the probable presence in the barrow of a wraith. A wraith pertaining to the deceased prince of Cardolan and now we can glean his exceedingly sad story.

With Tolkien there is always more. In order to solve a ‘riddle in the dark’ - we have to scavenge and piece together what evidence we have in a logical manner. Only then can we make sense of what on the surface looks like a set of inexplicable details and events.

I for one - am not willing to acquiesce and accept the views of noted scholars:- Shippey & Flieger:

“The scene with the wight is especially mysterious …”.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century - Page 67, Tom Shippey, 2014

“… The episode of Merry’s dream at the barrow remains, then the most irregular, least explicable and least historically prepared for event in the entire book, singular in its mystery …”.
- Green Suns and Faërie: Essays on J.R.R. Tolkien, Verlyn Flieger, 2012

No Professor’s Flieger’s & Shippey - there is a viable explanation which fits with the known facts!


If anyone cares to agree/disagree - please feel free to comment. But now I want to move on from the Barrow incident and briefly summarize what I have posted on since 2023. Soon after, my plan is to expose a wholly new side to Bombadil. A side which hopefully clear up many of the remarks made about him in both books and private letters. Because Bombadil, I believe, was designed with a role in mind, that is entirely foreign to the way most well-versed Tolkien aficionado’s think. So brace yourselves for the unexpected!

Well it’s been over 3 years since I first started posting on this thread. The revelations which have been divulged so far, I believe, are almost totally new to the world of Tolkien scholarship. Perhaps to some they are shocking. Perhaps to others, at first read, they’re barely believable. But just because no one has been down the paths I have - doesn’t mean such ideas as well as accompanying evidence are not appealing enough for deep consideration.

Anyhow, at this stage - don’t fall off your chairs - for with Bombadil, I’m only circa 50% done! There’s a lot more to come, and what the reader will hopefully soon start to see is an entirely new side to Tom’s character. A startling and perhaps extraordinary facet - as one will finally comprehend the extreme depths Tolkien plumbed for his marvelous subcreation.

But first, I think it would be wise to take a little break and ever so briefly summarize what has been extracted about Bombadil so far. So here I go:

What’s become obvious is that Tolkien used a great deal of academic knowledge in formulating Bombadil. Though much effort by other interested scholars has focused on possible in-mythology solutions such as him being one of the Ainur or Spirit of the Music etc., comparatively little work has been done on exploring connections to our real world. What has been revealed is that his character makeup had entwined a healthy sprinkling of English medieval lore and botanical based elements. But perhaps more surprisingly are extensive links to Christianity, Legends and Fairytales.

To the latter, exposed have been connections to the ‘little old man’ who so often pops up in fairytales such as Jack and the Beanstalk, The Little Folks’ Presents, The Bell-Deep, Tom Thumb etc. And then gods of a variety legends tie in too. Gods such as Esus, Mercury and Lugh. The evidence is substantial and beyond coincidence. We can safely conclude then, that Tolkien meant Tom to be a source of some of the characters in our fairytales/legends, thus historically chaining our world to his feigned Third Age (and others perhaps).

This idea of a Tolkien deliberately linking Tom to fairy tale characters has led to an examination of the colors Tolkien assigned him. Tethering in those colors Tolkien talked about in scholarly papers/lectures - we can reasonably conclude that Bombadil was encoded with hues associated to Faërie - and again, purposefully so.

But though colors lend us a clue as to his in-mythology nature, it is religious ‘coloring’ that most definitively allow us to conclude, that just like Gandalf, he is an ‘angelic’ being in the tale. Because perhaps most surprising of all is how much of a tight knot there is of Bombadil’s character to Christianity. The evidence is so subtly blended in that it is hardly noticeable.

Yet we can be almost certain that our Christian holy dates of September 29th and November 20th tie-in with the deeds and important happenings within the novel and thus were purposefully inserted links to Bombadil. By no stretch of the imagination could this have been accidental. And from it has been revealed an alter-ego intermeshed to the legends of St. Michael in English lore, the Bible and apocryphal texts which also, quite astonishingly, connect to a great and all powerful ring. The links are only deepened with the exposure ot Tom’s house covertly resembling the shape of a Christian cross.

In this quest to dissect Tolkien’s extraordinary invention, one byproduct is finally gaining an understanding of the storyline behind the Barrow-downs adventure. Where the reader has been flummoxed over strange happenings, mysterious details, timeline oddities, and supernatural rites there is finally a way to bind them all together into a credible and logical theory. Once again, Tolkien used deep knowledge of fairytale lore (particularly the English Childe Rowland) to leave the reader with a crackable ‘riddle in the dark’. Though, to my knowledge, no person has guessed (despite hundreds of millions of readings having taken place) or comprehended the utterly subtle inclusion of ‘Middle-earth Faërie’ into the tale, its importance is paramount to understanding yet more about Bombadil - as we will eventually see ……

@Priya ,
As you stated, "The revelations which have been divulged so far, I believe, are almost totally new to the world of Tolkien scholarship." For this, thank you for three years of posting and sharing your revelations, and keeping the Lore forum alive. It is all so very interesting.