Tony Meade
Active Member
SESSION 40
A spiritual battle commences:
A spiritual battle commences:
- We aren’t told what the tales are that Frodo has heard about the Barrow-wights.
- Note: The Barrow-wights are often associated with undead beings like zombies and vampires but they’re not like either of those things.
- The main threat that Frodo is aware of in the Barrow-wights is their spells, not a physical threat.
- We must assume that the spells he fears are from the wights themselves.
- What Frodo must be afraid of is a fate worse than death, such as domination or possession.
- It’s important that the tales are whispered, showing the dread that the wights are held in.
- Frodo has not been harmed by the wight, but he has been laid out as though already dead.
- It’s more important that barrows are a burial place than that it is possibly a realm of the undead.
- The fact that he stops feeling helpless implies that he did feel like that at first when he woke up.
- The fear Frodo feels is probably not just his; it’s probably part of the power of the Barrow-wight.
- Frodo’s memories of Bilbo and the Shire is the first way that he fights back.
- How is the “best hobbit in the Shire” measured? Probably through a lack of timidity.
- Frodo has no hope about getting out alive, but this hardens him rather than breaks him.
- This is parallel to Sam’s hardening later in Mordor when he realizes they cannot survive.
- There is also a parallel to Bilbo’s leap in the dark over Gollum, though the roles are reversed.
- This hardening and readiness for action is a direct counter to the spell of the Barrow-wight.
- Why does Frodo think about Bilbo here? There is the Road song, which is now partially fulfilled.
- There doesn’t seem to be much hope generated here, remembering Bilbo’s adventure; rather the determination seems to be to fight on until the end, even if he cannot survive.
- Do we know anything about hobbit funerary practices? Yes, because we are told that the casualties of the Battle of Bywater are buried, and their graves marked with a stone.
- Why is Frodo laid out separately from the others? It’s possible that the other three were taken together, and Frodo brought last. However, it may have something to do with the Ring.
- There is a twisted kind of hospitality being shown to the other three hobbits, in that they are finely dressed and given rings, which is an Anglo-Saxon rite of honor.
- Frodo has also been clothed in white, but he has not been given any other treasures.
- It seems significant that the sword is not across Frodo’s throat, as it is with the others.
- There doesn’t seem to be any sign that the wights have taken any notice of the Ring.
- The layout seems to be for Frodo’s benefit. He’s intended to see this; the light is for him and from him in order to see his friends laid out for a funeral.
- They are being laid out like warriors and great lords, with their weapons and shields and jewelry.
- The point seems to be to get Frodo to give up and submit to the will of the Barrow-wight.
- The hobbits being laid out like great warriors seems like a form of mockery.
- The complexity of the dressing and decoration of the hobbits shows that the wight has had access to their unconscious bodies for some time and has been very physically intimate.
- This is creepy, but this also shows that the wights have had ample opportunity to kill them, but they have chosen not to.
- This seems to be some kind of ritual, though the meaning a ritual requires is unclear here.
- This may be a form of execution ritual, and the wights have been waiting for Frodo to wake up and resist them before carrying it out with him as witness.
- There is also a sense in which this is a preparation for an act of magic, though what is unclear.
- If this reminds us of anything, it is the preparation for an act of human sacrifice.
- We are reminded of Boromir’s funeral, where even though Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas were urgently needed elsewhere, they took time to arrange Boromir properly, as it was important.