For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.

[Aiwendil]

Bethberry wrote:

Or is Merry reliving a previous life (well, in this case, death). Is this one tiny example of a possibility that Merry is here reliving a past death? If elves can reincarnate, could this be a suggestion that Men could, too?

Interesting idea, but I must say I don't at all buy it. Tolkien seems to have been quite settled on the idea that a (perhaps the) fundamental difference between Elves and Men was this: Elvish spirits remain in the world after they die; Mannish spirits depart 'elsewhither'.

Of course, there are a very few exceptions, but these are all very special and very well recorded cases. Beren was reincarnated, but only before his spirit 'sought elsewhither' and left Arda. Turin is prophecized to return at the Dagor Dagorath, 'returning from the Doom of Men' - but this is of course a one-shot, as it were, and doesn't come about until the world's end. Gandalf was sent back by Iluvatar, but only because he had a very particular mission to fulfill and because he was, after all, really a Maia and merely incarnated in human form.

Moreover, Tolkien eventually rejected rebirth even for the Elves, opting instead for literal reincarnation; their adult bodies were simply re-created. It seems to have been philosophical considerations that lead him to this.

That isn't to say that human fear can't perhaps linger in the world in some cases before taking Iluvatar's Gift and departing. We certainly see that in the Dead Men of Dunharrow, for instance, and I think in the Barrow-wights as well. I have always assumed that a houseless fea living in the barrow was attempting to take control of Merry's hroa, and in the process momentarily imparted its memories to him. Interestingly, though, the Barrow-wights themselves don't seem to be houseless fear - it seems they still control their (un)dead bodies. Or perhaps, being dead, they are no longer inextricably attached to their corpses, and the fea of the Barrow-wight was seeking to take control of the stronger hroa of one of the Hobbits.