The Movie and the Book

Fog on the Barrow-downs

This entire chapter was left out of the film. A brief description of what it contains is provided below.

In the morning they said farewell and left Tom Bomadil's house. They then set off north across the Barrow Downs, hoping to reach the eastward road to Bree before nightfall. The barrow downs was a large plain east of the shire. The barrows were where men of the Kingdom of Arnor had been laid to rest thousands of years before. In recent times, the power of Sauron had spread to the Barrow Downs and they had become inhabited by barrow wights (evil spirits).

As the Hobbits crossed the Barrow Downs, a fog came up and they lost their way. Eventually they were separated and captured by a barrow wight. Frodo woke to find them all imprisoned in darkness. Frodo sang a song that Tom Bombadil had told them to use if they were in peril. He soon came to their aid and freed them from the Barrow Wight. From the hoard of the Barrow Wight, Tom selected four long knives and gave them to the hobbits as swords. These had been made by the men of Arnor when they were at war with the Witchking of Angmar (leader of the Nazgûl). They were bound with powerful spells for fighting the power of the Dark Lord. It is because of this power that Merry was able use his sword to help Eowyn defeat the Witch King later in the story.

From there the hobbits made it to the road and turned east for Bree.