Quote:
Originally Posted by Juicy-Sweet
The good side on its side would be thinking (I'm guessing that only the high-power people, Gandalf, Elrond etc would be able to clear out a wight, and that it was pretty difficult even for them. Tom Bombadil is in a league of his own, so his performance doesnt count.) - "Well, there MIGHT be a barrow blade or two in there - we don't know. But it would be awfully taxing to clear all the 393 barrows and fight a wight 393 times - and then probably just end up with golden brooches and useless stuff. It's not worth the bother. And hey, I'm a grand hero. It's just not fitting for me to camp in the barrows for years doing the tedious and repetitive task of clearing our barrow after barrow after barrow..."
I dont think Elrond or Gandalf likes doing the exact same thing 393 times in a row.
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Actually, that might not be the case. Killing a Barrow-Wight is actually quite easy,
provided you know it is there. A wight is deadly when you are in its barrow and under it's spell. However they do have one huge weakness, daylight. Daylight hits them, they dissolve into mist (this is basically what Tom did when he broke open the Barrows, he let the light in and killed the wight in each barrow he opened. The Hobbits got in trouble in no small parts because they
were hobbits; untrained, unaware of the nature of the danger, and still not experienced enough to take appropriate care. In contrast a group of individuals who went there KNOWING was was wating for them might have a very different story. They could wait for a sunny day (the wights may have trouble calling up the fog if condtions aren't already inclined to be misty. Or if they are elves, who are good at seeing by very little light, fog may not impair them as much as hobbits) Instead of trying to enter each barrow and deal with the wight
mano-a-mano you simply dig in from the top and let the light in, the light hits the wight dissolves and the barrows contents are free for the taking. Dealing with 393 wights one on one would indeed take years, having a small group chop holes in the top of each one, would only take a few weeks, possibly only a few days, depending on how fast you can dig (Tom did one in a few hours singlehandedly)
I think the real reason the good guys never did it is it never ocurred to them. As you intimated they might not have considered the possilbity of there possibly being a few weapons in the barrows worth the effort. This would go doubly for the elves, who might consider the weapons of little significance (they are not men (nor, technically is Gandalf) and so might not fall under the WK's purview, and hence need no "extra edge").
I still think it likey that the rest of the Barrows were eventually exumed, probably by former Rangers under Now crowned Aragorn's orders as part of some sort of "make sure that, should we get into a situation similar to what we have just gone through, we have every advantage on our side" plan (similar to my "someone must have had to take care of Shelob before hunger drove her out of the pass" problem) in the post war it may actually have been a no danger job, the wights may have all dissapeared anyway (if the nazgul all dropped dead when there was no more master ring/sauron to keep them going, then it is possible that, when the WK died, the wights, being his summonings also were unable to mantain existence on this plane and dissapeared. By the time Aragorn ascends the throne, the barrows may already be wight free.)
One final note, I'm not sure the brooches would neccecarily be all that useless. A culture who could weave spells into thier blades that would make them extra effective agaisnt Nazgul might have a few tricks they could work into cloak holds and things like that. Maybe a spell that provided protection against a wraiths ability to inspire fear.