BookI Chap8: Death and Life Songs?

[MajahTR]

About half way through the chapter we read the Barrow-wight's song. Then about a page later, Tom Bombadil banishes the wight and a couple of paragraphs later awakens the Hobbits. What do think about these poems?
DA

[Andorinha]

I am wondering what to make of this:

"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." (FotR, "Fog on the Barrow-Downs," p. 194)

When the song becomes a chanted "incantation," (p. 195) Frodo can clearly understand the speech of the Barrowwight -- it is apparently using the common Westron tongue, not the Black Speech of Mordor, nor yet some ancient speech of Man (Numenorean or Dunlendish) nor even an Orkish dialect. Is/ was the Barrow-wight once a human being, a man of local origins who therefore knew Westron?

[Stormrider]

Robert Foster's Complete Guide to Middle-Earth defines Barrow-wights as: "evil spirits from Angmar who infested the Great Barrows after TA 1636. the Wights tried to entrap people in the Barrows and then sacrifice them."

Robert Foster's also says: "Angmar was peopled with Orcs, Hill-men, and other such creatures."

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary gives this definition of spirit:
"Definition #2:
a) supernatural being or essence: as a capitalized : holy spirit
b) soul
c) an often malevolent being that is bodiless but can become visible; specifically : ghost
d) a malevolent being that enters and possesses a human being"

If the Barrow-wights were spirits, I would suspect they were the spirits of the Witch-King's slaves and minions (those same Orcs, Hill-men and others defined above) especially since they were "evil" spirits.

It could be these evil spirits were acting under the power of the Witch-King if he still had control of them after they died. I suspect there must have been some level of control by WK--especially if he was acting under Sauron's wishes to search for The Ring, WK would have used whatever abilities he had to search in the strangest and remotest of places. In that case, it would not have been a good idea for Frodo to put on The Ring while he was in the Barrow-downs!

We know Orcs do speak a common language and Westron was the Common Tongue for meetings of people from different lands.

Foster's says "Westron was the public language of the Dwarves and the base for many Orkish tongues." and also that "Hobbitish was a rustic form of Westron."

Therefore, Frodo should have been able to understand what was being said assuming the Barrow-Wights were the evil spirits of Orcs and other minions of the Witch-King.

Just reading through this passage from FOTR is giving me the creeps! I wonder what the Wights were sacrificing people for?

[Andorinha]

RE Stormrider's -- "If the Barrow-wights were spirits, I would suspect they were the spirits of the Witch-King's slaves and minions (those same Orcs, Hill-men and others defined above) especially since they were 'evil' spirits."

Ah, yeah, that would work, if they were under the Witch King's control at one time they would probably use his tongues to communicate.

I vaguely recall that there were "evil spirits" abroad from the very beginnings of Arda, and was wondering if some of these entered barrows to possess the newly dead? Alternatively, i think Dale Ann once referred to a HOME passage that said the Barrow-wights were like the Nazgul themselves, though I cannot remember how this was explained... sigh, have to see if I can find that bit.

Additionally, the "draugr" of Norse mythology may be referenced here, the walking undead.

[Andorinha]

More On Songs -- Bombadil Sings In the Rain!

David Elton Gay has suggested that JRRT was (partially at least) modeling Tom Bombadil upon the Finnish Kalevala character, Vainamoinen. Both Tom and Vainamoinen live in forested locales over which they exert a controlling influence, but both of them are very careful to tell the reader that they are "masters without ownership." They both are "eldest and fatherless" in their own worlds; they both are fearless through their possession of great power, and they both express this power through the vocal mechanism of song.

"For both Vainamoinen and Tom Bombadil power comes from their command of song and lore rather than from ownership and domination. ... Indeed, it would appear that he [Vainamoinen], like Tom Bombadil, sings for the simple pleasure of singing." (Tolkien and the Invention of Myth, p 298)

Day by day he sang unwearied,
Night by night discoursed unceasing,
Sang the songs of by-gone ages,
Hidden words of ancient wisdom.
(Kirby trans, Kalevala, 28-9)

"If, as I [D.E. Gay] propose, Tom Bombadil is based in part on Vainamoinen, then Tom's control of his world through knowledge expressed in song is to be expected: To have power over something in the mythology of the Kalevala one must know its origins and be able to sing the appropriate songs and incantations concerning these origins. ... A large part of [Vainamoinen's] power comes from the fact that as the oldest of all living things he saw the creation of things, heard their names, and knows the songs of their origins..." p. 299

In this regard, Bombadil also "knows" the proper song to sing to control the malevolent activity of Old Man Willow, and Bombadil is even able to pass along some of the "magic of song" to the four reckless hobbits so they may invoke his aid in the barrow. Songs are power in the Kalevala, and JRRT uses this motif in many of his Silmarillion tales, including the songs of creation, the songs of Melian the Maia, and her daughter Luthien. In LotR, Aragorn will use "song magic" to partially block the evil charms laid upon the Morgul blade that wounds Frodo, etc.

It occurs to me also, that when JRRT wishes to stress the "ancientness" of a given character, he often gives that character an expressive voice through song -- as though, in very ancient times, singing was the first form of expressive speech. Does the "ancient" Treebeard fall into this pattern as well?

[Stormrider]

In many cultures, there were shaman or wisemen who specifically learned all the tales and/or songs so the people would be able to learn the history of their tribe.

Singing would be an entertaining way to tell those stories and would make them more memorable, too. The shaman or wisemen would pass this knowledge on to their offspring or other capable young one if there were no offspring so the history would not be lost.

Although the Vainamoinen that you mention and Tom Bombadil sound like they are eternal and wouldn't need to worry about an offspring taking over the job. But their knowledge of the history and past just reminded me of the shaman, wisemen, (or historians) I mention above.

Good point about having power over Old Man Willow or the barrow wights by having this ancient knowledge. that never clicked with me before but it does fit!

[Andorinha]

RE Stormrider: "The shaman or wisemen would pass this knowledge on to their offspring or other capable young one if there were no offspring so the history would not be lost."

Ah, I like this! Yeah, I think this is a general function of all the "wisemen/women" in Tolkien's Middle-earth, JRRT has many characters who fulfill this "teaching" role. Bombadil may or may not have any offspring of his own, but he teaches the hobbits some very needful knowledge, and sings his way through an entire history of Middle-earth for the benefit of his four visitors. Bombadil has also had frequent contact with old farmer Maggot, a two-way street where information (history) is passed back and forth between them. The hobbits of the Shire get cautionary tales about the Old Forest and the Barrow Downs, news from afar, while Tom is told the history of the Shire, enough so that he even knows all about Frodo-Pippin-Merry and Sam's families!

Of course Gandalf acts in this fashion as well, reminding the "insular" hobbits of the history of the wider world, things they need to know if they are to prepare for their own survivals. Aragorn, Gildor, Elrond, Galadriel etc, all do their bit to share important "historical" information with the relatively ignorant hobbits, a feast of shamanistic education! lol. As a result of this education, the four hobbits come back home, prepared to meet, on their own, the emergency situation of the Shire, a Shire that needs them and their new-found knowledge, if it is to be properly "scoured."

In this sense, the four hobbits of the quest become "shamanistic" teachers themselves, and even pass their knowledge on to future generations of hobbits through such vehicles as the Red Book of the West March...