The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1, Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Frodo, Merry, Sam, Pippin, and their ponies leave the house of Tom Bombadil and travel north into the hills of the Barrow-downs—a series of burial mounds crowned by monoliths. At midday, the hobbits stop for rest and food, and after their long morning ride they accidentally fall asleep under the warm sun.

They awake to find that it is dusk and that a thick fog surrounds them. Disheartened by the ominous shift in weather, the hobbits move slowly through the fog in what they believe is a northerly direction. Frodo hurries ahead of the group when he believes he spies the exit from the Barrow-downs. He finds that he is mistaken, and turning back, has lost his companions to the fog. Suddenly he hears cries through the mist and tries to find their source. Ascending a hill and surrounded by an increasingly icy wind, he sees a barrow before him. Frodo hears a sinister voice before being confronted by the spectral figure of a barrow-wight. The creature sizes Frodo with an iron-like grip, and he falls unconscious.

When Frodo awakes, he realizes that he is trapped inside the burial mound. He is desperately afraid to be at the mercy of a barrow-wight, but steels his nerve to try and formulate a plan. He can see Sam, Merry, and Pippin lying near him, wrapped in white clothing, gold, and jewelry, with a long sword lying across their necks.

Suddenly a chanting song wafts through the darkness, and Frodo is chilled to the bone. When he sees a long arm groping toward Sam from a passage behind the hobbits, Frodo panics even further and considers putting on the Ring and running away. But his loyalty to his friends stops him, and his growing courage allows him to take hold of a short sword lying in the barrow’s treasure. He hacks at the advancing arm, severing the hand at the same moment that the sword shatters. All light in the barrow vanishes as snarling noises echo around Frodo.

Tripping over Merry, Frodo suddenly remembers Tom Bombadil’s song that he taught to the hobbits in case of emergency. Frodo nervously begins to sing and hears a reply from far away, followed by Tom Bombadil’s entrance to the barrow in a stream of light. Bombadil swiftly vanquishes the barrow-wight and revives the other hobbits. He then spreads the barrow’s treasures on the green grass atop the burial mound, choosing from the piles a brooch for Goldberry and daggers for each of the hobbits to wear. He also retrieves the hobbits’ ponies, who ran away from the barrow-wight’s presence.

Tom leads the hobbits out of the Barrow-downs and accompanies them to the road. He takes his leave to return home to Goldberry, advising the group to make for an inn called The Prancing Pony at the nearby town of Bree. The hobbits hurriedly ride toward the warmth and safety of the inn.