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Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings adaptation stayed mostly faithful to Tolkien’s work, but it missed the opportunity to show some harrowing spirits.
For the most part, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies were very faithful adaptations of Tolkien’s classic trilogy. One of the major changes, however, came at the beginning of the Hobbits’ journey — before they even met Aragorn at the Prancing Pony. The inclusion of some of their early perils wouldn’t have changed the narrative in any way, but it would have given the opportunity to show a really cool, ghostly encounter.
In Tolkien’s book, the Hobbits’ journey was much more eventful and a lot more perilous. Rather than simply encountering a Black Rider on the road, they met the one and only Tom Bombadil, traveled through an ancient graveyard and encountered some pretty ghastly spirits. No one knows anything definitive about Tom Bombadil, but his absence from the films has been well-documented. So, here’s a look at the graveyard that Frodo and his companions traveled through and the spirits that briefly captured them.
What Are the Barrow-wights in Lord Of The Rings?
For a bit of context, in the year TA 861, — over eight hundred years after Isildur died — the Dúnedain Kingdom of Arnor split into three kingdoms: Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur. Then, in TA 1300 the Kingdom of Angmar appeared with the chieftain of the Nazgûl at its helm. For a hundred years, the kingdoms held out against his evil, but in TA1409, Rhudaur was annexed by Angmar and Cardolan was destroyed, in part because of the Great Plague. That left Arthedain all alone in the fight against the Witch King, and it held out for another five hundred years. However, in the meantime, the Witch King sent the Barrow-wights to inhabit the burial ground of Tyrn Gorthad to ensure that no one would be able to resettle Cardolan. From then on, the place was known as the Barrow-downs.
It was after leaving the house of Tom Bombadil that Frodo and the Hobbits proceeded to travel the Barrow-downs. That’s where they encountered wraith-like creatures called Barrow-wights. And if evil spirits weren’t bad enough, the most harrowing part was that the Barrow-wights were able to possess the bones within the ancient tombs and regularly roam the Barrow-downs as undead skeletons.
Like many of the ancient evils of Middle-earth, no one knew exactly what the Barrow-weights were. They could have been perverted Maiar or spirits that once belonged to orcs, fallen elves or evil men. All that was known about them for sure was that they were evil spirits that served the Witch King of Angmar. In fact, some reports say that the Witch King visited the Barrow-downs during the Nazgûl’s search for Frodo and caused the Barrow-weights to be on the lookout for intruders.
Why Tom Bombadil May Have Played a Part in the Barrow-Wights’ Cut
Regardless of whether the Witch King played a part or not, the Barrow-wights easily captured Frodo and the other Hobbits and nearly sacrificed them in the tomb of the Last Prince of Cardolan. Thankfully, though, Frodo was able to summon Tom Bombadil, who appeared just in time to save him.
Bombadil’s exclusion from the film adaptations has been a controversial talking point for years. By most reports, Jackson simply cut him to maintain pacing in an already packed trilogy. However, by cutting Bombadil, Jackson, more or less, had to cut the Barrow-wights with the same fell swoop. That’s because, without Bombadil, there was no Deus ex-machine to rescue the Hobbits from the evil spirits in the Barrow-downs.
On top of that, while the Barrow-downs would have been an awesome location to explore, there was no real reason to add more wraith-like creatures into a movie that already featured nine Nazgûl. So, despite the important part they play in the books, it makes sense why Jackson chose to keep the Barrow-wights out of his adaptation.
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