Heed no nightly noises

[radagastly]

Just remembered this old chestnut of a thread and thought I'd bring it back up for a few more thoughts.

Originally posted by CSteefel:

And as has been mentioned, Bombadil clearly had a good deal more knowledge of who was in the neighborhood than he let on initially, so I don't doubt that he was aware of the visit of the WK just to the east.

Tom's choice of weapons for the Hobbits was clearly appropriate to the enemy they were facing, whether he had any foresight about some future battle before the gates of Minas Tirith many leagues south of his little land or not. They gave the hobbits the best chance he could provide them to fight their pursuers that were stalking them through his homeland.

I've also been wondering about Fog on the Barrow Downs. A long lasting rain can often be followed by thick fog, depending on temperature changes after the end of the rainstorm. Might the fog be an extention of the rain in this case? Could it be intended to hide the hobbits passage through the Downs, despite the fact it ends up confusing them?

I have more research to do on this, but I thought I'd bring this thread up now to see if anyone had any thoughts on these possibilities. I'll certainly post more later.