"You won't find your clothes again," said Tom.

Archimago

Archimago

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I know the Barrow-downs have long since faded in the distance behind us, but I found during my catch-up binge that one minor issue about the hobbits' sartorial adventure with the Barrow-wight still bugs me. What really did happen to their clothes, and why won't Tom tell them?

In the Episode 44 discussion, it's suggested that Tom's main goal is to discourage the hobbits from trying to retrieve their clothes from the barrow. Very sensible, but that explanation doesn't quite feel right to me. Rather, I get the impression that Tom is trying to distract them from wondering too much about what happened to their clothes.

"You won't find your clothes again," said Tom...

"What do you mean?" asked Pippin, looking at him, half puzzled and half amused. "Why not?"

But Tom shook his head, saying: "You've found yourselves again, out of the deep water. Clothes are but little loss, if you escape from drowning..."​

Tom ignores Pippin's Why question, suggesting instead they should simply be glad to have escaped (which is good advice, but that's not what Pippin was asking about). I have a few guesses as to why Tom is being so cagey.

First, the hobbit's clearly view the idea of losing their clothes somewhat lightly: Pippin is half amused, and even Sam looks as if he expects to find a neatly-folded pile of clothes close by. They are about as far as one could possibly be from imagining the horrors of being dragged unconscious into a tomb and stripped naked by cold, dead hands. I think this alone would be sufficient reason for Tom to dissuade them from thinking too much about their clothes: they're already recovering from the horror of their experience (hobbit resilience!) and Tom doesn't want to remind them of it.

I also think it's quite possible that their clothes are not in neatly-folded piles; rather, they may have been cut off with a knife and are now lying in tatters (carefully undoing buttons on a waistcoat seems a bit dainty for a Barrow-wight). Certainly this realization (if true) would have been even more horrifying.

Finally, I have one more idea that seems like a bit of a leap but which nevertheless seems plausible to me. The hobbits are dressed in the cerements of the tomb's original inhabitants as part of the Barrow-wight's dreadful ritual. I wonder if the hobbit's garments were then used to clothe the corpses from which the wight took the grave-wrappings. It would add a nice bit of symmetry, which is always something you want in a ritual. Admittedly, hobbit-garments would not fit Man-sized skeletons very well; I imagine Sam's waistcoat was left unbuttoned. But for purposes of evil spell-casting, I expect it would suffice.
 
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I am sooo late to this conversation, but here's my take. I thought it might happen magically.

1.The barrow-wight(s) seem to work mostly through trickery, deception, illustion, and possibly magic. It tricks the hobbits (primarily Frodo) to separate from the rest of the group, and appears (in a shadowy form) to Frodo causing him to faint. But in terms of physicality, the barrow-wight is only ever described as a bony arm or "with iron grip." It doesn't seem to have fully formed. I think much like the Nazgûl, Necromancer, Dementors etc. They are menacing because of coldness and fear, which seems to create physical interaction. I.e. The black breath or dementors kiss. They cause or are described as physical action/reactions, but the interaction itself is not..(or is at least has magical overtones).

2. In terms of time and effort for the wight (though there is no time clock in the book) It would take any one-armed thing a TON of time, (given that it even could) to actually maneuver clothes - let alone another being (or 3). And with no body? or other barrow-wight help? I'm guessing it's not the wights' time-management plan! We are given a slight time indicator though that Tom Bombadil comes quickly to help Frodo, and that there is no mention in the text that it took even over a day to do this. So I'm also guessing that the whole event didn't represent a significant passage of time (more than a night).

Magical Scenario Reasoning:
A. It seems much more likely that the clothes change is done magically, and we see that a lot in fantasy stories. The "poor" (physically, spiritually, intellectually) person is magically transformed from rags to riches (I'm looking at you Cinderella, Aladdin, or The Emperor & His New Clothes) This illusion seems to fit in a lot more with the way the Barrow-Wights work, Sauron, the Witch-King, the Oathbreakers, etc. and even Gandalf (re-entering Arda) or Earindil (entering Valinor). No one is stealing Gandalf the Gray's clothes, but he needs to be given new one's as Gandalf 2.0... it seems to be, if you get a significant life status change, your clothes need to match the occasion. Ye-Olde Facebook Status.
This might explain why the hobbits can't have their clothes. Sometimes the characters get things back, sometimes they don't. It kinda depends on the magic or the story lesson. In this case, the hobbits didn't get a designer fairy-godmother but instead an undead shadow skeleton with gaudy accessories. Tough luck my friends. Besides, if the barrow-wight hasn't even fully formed itself, giving you back your clothing probably isn't at the top of its' priority list. You just can't get good help these days...

B. The way the hobbits seem laid out also plays well with the idea of a ceremonial switcheroo - which might need an exchange of physical items. And remember, the ponies had more sense and ran off with everything else. The barrow-wight had to make do with what was at hand (pun intended).
But if the barrow-wight can do a soul/body switch and use your energy (Sanderson Sisters, Voldemort, Sauron), it might have more physical power/control/re-animation/manifesting.

C. If we look at the incantation "Cold be hand and heart and bone, and cold be sleep under stone:never more to wake on stony bed...and still on gold here let them lie... The hobbits would take the place of the barrow-wight, (gaudy rings and all) while the Barrow-wight can use their energy or physical form (and clothes) to move more freely about in Arda. Sorry gang, it's your turn to get stuck with the undead! It's sooo yesterday!
This subsequently firms up Tom's reasoning for stomping on the arm and why he can't give them their clothes - He wants to break any connection, and the clothes are most likely gone (in one way or another).
 
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Edit: I got a little farther in the podcast, and now I am stumped too.
I hold much of my former post, but I learned about Tolkien's reference to the Norse draugr - which are decidedly corporeal or physical.
I looked back at the text, and the most physical thing is cold touch - which could also be viewed as similar to Merry's interaction with the Black Breath / Nazgûl in Bree. Other physical descriptions are visual or auditory (which can be faked through illusion). So, is this a case of Tolkien referencing the draugr and later revising the text until they are primarily ghostly in nature? Or should the Barrow-Wights be taken as physical beings that they were modeled after? But then why is only the arm shown to Frodo? why not the whole body?
I also overlooked in my last post that the Barrow-Wight is sent into the graves of the Dunedin, which makes me question its' physicality again. If the Barrow-wight had the option to manifest itself into a physical being through the dead Dunedin already in the grave, wouldn't that be the best move? It would have more time to physically manifest. Or is that what we are seeing when it "grabs" Frodo?
But using the hobbits ceremonially, and the appearance of only the arm again indicates it's not fully formed, and that probably decayed or completely decomposed body already available, is well...not so available. Ewww.
I'm confused.
 
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