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If I only had a Bombadil... - Page 2

© Michael Martinez

My guess is that the Nazgul always intended to stab Frodo. If Khamul had found him in Hobbiton he probably would have come back after dark and nabbed our dear Hobbit. How else should they have been able to take him back to Mordor anyway? Regardless of what Peter Jackson's story reveals, or how closely it follows the book in this respect, the Nazgul are going to have to come across like terrifying and dangerous creatures. The audience has to feel somehow that if Jackson's Nazgul were to get Jackson's Frodo, they'd haul him back to Mordor. So, one must ask the question, would including the Barrow-wight diminish the effect of the Nazgul? Something we learn from Bombadil is that the Barrow-wights were sent by the Lord of the Nazgul to infest the mounds of Tyrn Gorthad. Okay, what the reader is told is that "A shadow came out of dark places far away, and the bones were stirred in the mounds." Where is the mention of the Lord of the Nazgul? Well, Appendix A says "It was at this time [1636, the year of the Great Plague] that an end came to the Dunedain of Cardolan, and evil spirits out of Angmar and Rhudaur entered into the deserted mounds and dwelt there." Okay, all one need do is turn to the Appendix to see where the Wights came from. Of course, the reader doesn't know to do that during "In the House of Tom Bombadil", and movies don't have appendices (but DvDs can). Bombadil basically recounts the entire history of Arnor from its founding up to its fall. So much is lost on the reader, and I believe this is intentional. I think Tolkien wanted to slip the history lesson past us so that when Aragorn whips out his broken sword at Imladris and Elrond recounts his lineage the reader can be surprised without feeling cheated. It's not like we weren't warned about that. In "Fog on the Barrow-downs" Bombadil continued the history lesson after rescuing the Hobbits:

'Old knives are long enough as swords for hobbit-people,' he said. 'Sharp blades are good to have, if Shire-folk go walking east, south, or far away into dark and danger.' Then he told them that these blades were forged many long years ago by Men of Westernesse: they were foes of the Dark Lord, but they were overcome by the evil king of Carn Dum in the Land of Angmar.

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