As we resume “Fog on the Barrow-downs”, Frodo comes to and finds himself trapped in a barrow with his friends unconscious beside him, arrayed eerily in the buried treasures of long-dead lords. For a moment, Frodo is tempted to flee with the Ring and leave his friends behind, but there is a seed of courage hidden in the heart of every hobbit, and Frodo isn’t just any hobbit. Also: halfling streaking, a listener question about Sauron’s massive blind spot, and we’ll take “Unflattering Names to Call Your Pony” for $200, Alex.
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Recommended Reading:
Shippey, Tom. Roots and Branches: Selected Papers on Tolkien (Walking Tree Publishers, paperback)
Listening to this episode, I was struck by the fact that I don’t think I had ever considered the comparison between Tom Bombadil and the figure of Vainamoinen in the Finnish Kalevala, but it is true that both wield power through their singing, and Tolkien certainly took inspiration from the Kalevala. I first encountered Vainamoinen and other characters from the Kalevala many years ago in the pages of Time-Life Books’ Enchanted World series, and much later read a translation of the Kalevala itself, but I don’t think I ever made a connection.
(Incidentally, I believe that you are correct about the pronunciation of “Kalevala”; Finnish words are generally stressed on the first syllable. “Vainamoinen” is a bit trickier, at least in terms of the vowels.)
In addition, I always chalked up Tom’s stamping inside the tomb as him being noisy as usual; I never pictured him as stomping on the disembodied hand (which gives a very different image, I must say).
Finally, with regard to Tom’s words, “The gate is open,” when he awakens the hobbits: I agree that it could refer to the opening to the barrow and the Barrow-wight’s world, but it also occurred to me that it might imply that the hobbit’s spirits (or at least their identities) were temporarily displaced from their bodies, and now they are free to return to themselves again. Just a thought…
It did occur to me when listening to the episode that Tom’s “thumping and stamping” might just be his usual noise, but I really like the idea that he’s stomping on the hand. 🙂
That reading of “the gate is open” is very interesting, though. It depends on how much their selves were lost while the spirits of the slain men were inhabiting them. I always imagined that the spirits were inhabiting their bodies alongside their true identities, because of the way Merry seems to go back and forth from hobbit to slain man to hobbit again. But that is after Tom says “the gate is open”, of course, so your interpretation seems possible enough.
P.S. Thank you for your responses to my previous comments – I greatly appreciate them!
Shawn steps up for a great voice performance! As always, the podcast is glorious, you gentlemen are doing Eru’s work.
Thank you, sir!
Binge listener here. I have to disagree with you that the hand was disembodied to begin with – the hand is seen severed after Tom’s arrival, but it was Frodo that had severed it at the wrist. Previously it was attached to at least an arm and probably the rest of the wight too.
As for why it was crawling, well doylisticaly it makes for a creepier image and gives Frodo more time to muster his courage. The simple watsonian explanation is that the wight is around a corner behind the hobbits and can’t see the sword – so it is feeling for it. Now why it’s standing (crouching?) around a corner isn’t apparent. Maybe there is ritual significance in the places where it and the hobbits are placed in the barrow, or perhaps in not seeing it’s victims. Another explanation might lie in that the entrance to the barrow just beyond the feet of the hobbits is facing east and it is currently morning. If the wight is a creature of darkness and cold mist that “vanishes in the sunlight” it might be averse to even the slightest possibility of being illuminated.
The open gate might be for the spirits of the Dúnedain that briefly possessed the hobbits to leave. They must have been trapped in the barrows somehow to still be here so long after dying and it’s past time for them to GTFO of Arda.
Admittedly, it’s been a couple of years since we recorded this one and I don’t remember if or why we ever thought it was disembodied to begin with, but your explanation seems reasonable. I’ll have to give this one another listen. Thanks, and enjoy the binge!
Tolkien was very careful in his descriptions. I think we must read here that the chamber has two entrances. The arm, attached to the Wight, comes from behind Frodo’s head. He has to raise himself and turn his head to see it. Whereas, Bombadil breaks in through an opening beyond Frodo’s feet. The Wight (minus a hand) flees by the “inner end” i.e. deeper underground.
So it is a liminal space, a gateway from the underworld. Tom breaks the spell so this way is now closed.
There are parallels in classical mythology: the Cave of the Nymphs in Homer (Odyssey 13, 109ff) or the gates of horn and ivory (Aeneid 6, 893ff)