a barrow wight

[Inziladun]

Gordis

They were supposed to go there, they were summoned, but they could refuse the summons and stay as disembodied ghosts in ME. It was against the Design of Eru, so such Elves became easy prey to Morgoth and his followers.

I don't have the HoME books, nor have I read them, so I was drawing from the 'core' works - LOTR, UT, and The Silmarillion. I knew of no instance of an Elvish spirit remaining bodiless outside Mandos. Even those who died in Valinor were there. All the HoME information is very interesting, and I must make some effort to acquire those volumes.

The "Last prince of Cardolan" whose barrow it was (see App. A), died in 1409. The Wights entered the Barrow soon after the Plague, in 1636. So the corpses had only about 230 years to rot naturally. If the conditions were good, the air dry etc., in such a short time the bodies could have been quite nicely preserved, especially if embalmed properly. And I guess Dunedain (with their obsession with Death and tombs) did embalm their dead, much like Egyptians

The Barrow Downs didn't seem especially dry- green grass was everywhere, fog was in abundance, and while the hobbits were in Tom Bombadil's house they noted:

The upper wind settled in the West and deeper and wetter clouds rolled up to spill their laden rain on the bare heads of the Downs.

FOTR p146 (paperback)

It is also interesting to observe that in the Moria Chamber of Mazarbul, presumably a far drier environment, we have this description:

By both the doors they could now see that many bones were lying, and among them were broken swords and axe-heads, and cloven shields and helms.

FOTR p. 360 (paperback)

Those bodies, apparently the result of fighting between Balin's Dwarves and Orcs, had been there only thirty years or thereabouts, and already had decayed to bones.
Embalming could explain this, as the Númenoreans certainly practised the art, but I would question whether they did it as a matter of custom on all their people, or just their Kings (and later, Stewards).

There is some textual evidence. Firstly, we know that the Witch-King had visited the Barrow Wights right before Frodo et al. were trapped in the Barrow.

Quote:
The Black Captain […] himself visited the Barrow-downs. In notes on the movements of the Black Riders at that time it is said that the Black Captain stayed there for some days, and the Barrow-wights were roused, and all things of evil spirit, hostile to Elves and Men, were on the watch with malice in the Old Forest and on the Barrow-downs.-UT, "Hunt for the Ring"

I believe the Witch-King reminded the Wights that he was their master and explained to them the current goals. They had to know he wanted the One Ring. Strange it is that the Wight hadn't summoned the Witch-King straight away. Instead it started this strange dark ritual involving the three hobbits, but not Frodo. I can't understand the Wight's behaviour…

Indeed. If the Wight knew of the existence of the Ring, why wasn't it taken from Frodo immediately? That is why I simply cannot believe that the Wights did know. The Witch-king stayed there for a while, and his presence acted as a catalyst to increase the hostility of other evil creatues in the area. But did he actually tell those creatures what he was doing, and what they should look for? Again, the actions of the Wight that took the hobbits seem to indicate it was doing its own thing, evil in itself, but not necessarily in lock step with the goals of the Witch-king.

[Gordis]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Embalming could explain this, as the Númenoreans certainly practised the art, but I would question whether they did it as a matter of custom on all their people, or just their Kings (and later, Stewards).

Barrow-Downs were Royal tombs where Chieftains and Kings of the Edain were buried over the ages. Perhaps the oldest, pre-Numenorean, barrows had the corpses not embalmed, so the Wights who entered these mounds would have to be content with mere bones. The barrow in question, dating from TA 1409, obviously contained the embalmed corpses of the Last Prince of Cardolan and his family, including the Lady of the Brooch. They would be still well preserved in 1636 - so this particular Wight could have got a nice whole body.

Indeed. If the Wight knew of the existence of the Ring, why wasn't it taken from Frodo immediately? That is why I simply cannot believe that the Wights did know. The Witch-king stayed there for a while, and his presence acted as a catalyst to increase the hostility of other evil creatues in the area. But did he actually tell those creatures what he was doing, and what they should look for? Again, the actions of the Wight that took the hobbits seem to indicate it was doing its own thing, evil in itself, but not necessarily in lock step with the goals of the Witch-king.

I think the Wight desired to "play" with the unnecessary, ringless hobbits, those the WK wouldn't want anyway. The hobbit who had the Ring was set aside, awaiting to be delivered to the nazgul.
I don't believe the Wight, being an Evil magical creature, was unable to feel which one of the hobbits carried a powerful artifact, imbued with Darkness. Maybe it didn't know what exactly it was, but it felt its magic strongly, I guess.
Orcs who had attacked Isildur were drawn to the Ring (UT), though they had no idea of its existence. The Watcher-in-the-water picked Frodo unerringly out of the company of nine, and so did the orc who rushed into the Chamber of Mazarbul and hit Frodo with a spear.

It is quite possible, IMO, that it was the Ring that permitted Frodo to overcome the Wight's magick and to wake up in time to save the others - much like the Ring unwittingly helped Sam against the Orcs at Cirith Ungol.

[Alfirin]

another possiblity (re the preservation of the bodies). We hear how foggy (even without wight activity) and wet the downs are, maybe they're actually over a peat deposit (grass can grown on top of these right) if they are and the tombs aren't water tight bodies could have been essentially pickled (I know the tombs arent wet when they go in) but they could be just at the point where they are below the water table sometimes and above it at others; the hobbits could have been crossing in the dry season) the Orc and dwarf bodies would still be skeletionized, as they are on the surface, and things have to be buried in peat to be preserved by it. Peat bogs are pretty good at perserving bodies (just look at all of the ones in museums, like Tollund man) There is no mention of the hobbits seeing water damage in the toumbs but given how dark it was (and the circumstances they were in there, they probably wouln't have noticed) The only flaw I can see in this throy is that I am not sure how well peat preserves iron; I'm concerned the swords would have rusted away in those circumstances. The main problem I have with the embalming scenario is that, for the most part, embalming by itself wont last forever. Egyptina methods improved the cnages of a body mummifying well, but it was the hot, dry climate that kept the bodies preserved. Incan mummies became mummies because they were exposed to the drying winds of the Andes, Unzie (the iceman) had more or less the same thing happen to him. In wet conditions (like the downs apper to be), embaming doesn't last long, assuming that edain embalming tecniques were equal to our modern ones, the embalming substances would have worn off long ago way before the 220 or so years till the wight came. Most modern "wet" embalmings are disngned to last a few years to decades; longer than that usally requires someone to re-embalm the body from time to time, or at least preform some upkeep (as is done for Lenin's body).
One finally possiblity, there are places where for some reason, the soil naturally mummifies bodies (I think there's a town in either Mexico or Spain that famous for it) maybe the down are like that.