Butturbur's Worst Customers

[Joat1513]

Originally Posted by Sarumian

As a good narrator, Tolkien usually tells us only a part of the things he "knows" about Middle Earth. It might be that Aragorn's words initially referred to Andrath, but as that part of the story was abandoned, the most suitable explanation of the dwellings of



seems to be Barrow Downs. When he says:



'or' doesn't need to mean 'and', so the latter can be ruffians. It is also possible that Wights can travel (as they once came to Downs) and that, on the other hand, rangers can withstand their 'chill' and keep them at bay. After all, Aragorn was able to withstand even the terror of five Nazgul in the night at Weathertop.

I sincerely doubt the threat Aragorn had mentioned referred to the Barrow Wights. While it is entirely unclear to what lengths Barrow Wights could travel or otherwise leave their "Barrow", one does seem to leave to ensnare Frodo & Co, they require the safety of their barrows for continual existence. This implies that they can't or wouldn't leave their barrows for any length of time. Especially as they cannot survive the daylight in which they'd simply wither away. So to travel to Bree & back would seem far too unlikely for them IF they could even travel.

You inferred that they could travel because hey, they got down to the downs somehow right..... Except the Barrow Wights only appeared in the downs directly by the Witch King of Angmar's magic. The Witch King is responsible for putting the Barrow Wight's spirits there. So they didn't necessarily have to travel anywhere. While they certainly seem capable of "freezing" Butterbur's heart..... I definitely have a hard time seeing them "sack" a whole town.

So I have a hard time thinking Aragorn meant the Barrow Wights as a day's march from Bree.