[radagastly]

I believe Tolkien said something about the hobbits needing an adventure between Crickhollow and Bree. I'm not sure where I read that, so perhaps someone else remembers and can provide the exact quote. At any rate, this side adventure increases the tension and tone of the story. It also causes a delay that allows time for other story elements to fall into place. Things might well have turned out quite differently if they had reached Bree in a day instead of the three days it ended up taking. The hobbits might well have passed Weathertop before the Black Riders ever got there.

But there is a more important reason to include this otherwise seemingly unintegrated adventure with Bombadil and the Barrow Wight. One of the things that LotR is about is its milieu, the setting and atmosphere of all Middle-Earth. While certain story elements may not be technically necessary to convey the plotline to the reader, they are essential to the texture of the whole. If he was only concerned with showing the plot, he could also have omitted Gildor and supper at Farmer Maggot's house and probably many other brief scenes as well. Maybe Fatty Bolger at Crickhollow? FEAR! FIRE! FOES! AWAKE! These sidelights give the reader a glimpse into the undusted corners of Middle-Earth that contributes to the bigger picture, one brush-stroke at a time, so to speak. The milieu itself becomes a character because we know it, it's woods and fields and little rivers. We care what becomes of it. Without these scenes, the departure at the Grey Havens would not move us so deeply. We know what Frodo is leaving behind, never to see again. We also see the descent from this world of wonder to the magic-free, mundane world it is meant to become. Without these scenes, the real wonder would never be there for us in the first place, so there would be no loss to mourn.