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Originally Posted by Eönwë
But Frodo could see the bones, not the spirit itself. I think the spirit, not the physical body (or rather, bones) could see him with the ring, as spirits are on the Other Side.
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Would a mere skeleton be described as a 'tall dark figure like a shadow'? Wouldn't you think Frodo would have described bare bones, if that's what he'd seen?
It seems the 'What are Barrow-wights?' question once again rears its ugly head.
The wights must have had a corporeal form.
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Round the corner a long arm was groping, walking on its fingers towards Sam, who was lying nearest....
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FOTR Fog On the Barrow-Downs
That arm was not described as 'skeletal' either.
I've heard arguments that what Frodo saw in the barrow were the animated remains of who was buried there, and the same spell that preserved the weapons and treasure it contained also kept the remains from corruption. It is unlikely the arm was merely dead flesh, however.
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Some say that the mound in which the Ring-bearer was imprisoned had been the grave of the last prince of Cardolan, who fell in the war of 1409.
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ROTK App A
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In the days of Argeleb II....an end came of the Dúnedain of Cardolan, and evil spirits out of Angmar and Rhudaur entered into the deserted mound and welt there.
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ROTK App A
Argeleb II's reign presumably began upon the death of his father, Araphor in 1589, and Argeleb died in 1670. Therefore, those remains had to have been in the barrow at least 180 years, plenty of time for advanced decomposition before the Wight arrived, so the arm Frodo saw
could not have been part of the corpse.