b2mem | Dark vs Light: Contrasting Visions of the End of the World by amyfortuna

B2MeM Prompt and Path: Analyse a chapter or passage, Orange Path
Format: Essay
Genre: Meta
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Characters: Barrow-wight, Morgoth, Tom Bombadil, Finrod Felagund
Pairings: none
Creator’s Notes (optional): This is also written for this week's silmread chapter of LOTR.
Summary: Morgoth's vision of the end of the world (as expounded by the Barrow-wight) is contrasted with Tom Bombadil's and Finrod Felagund's vision of Arda Remade.

To talk about the end of the world, we have to go back to the beginning. The very first passages of The Silmarillion make plain that Arda was never perfect, it was Marred almost from the start:

"But as the theme progressed, it came into the heart of Melkor to interweave matters of his own imagining that were not in accord with the theme of Ilúvatar, for he sought therein to increase the power and glory of the part assigned to himself."

The ramifications of his choice sets Melkor (and those who end up following him) against Ilúvatar, Manwë, and all those who choose to oppose him, and the visions they create of how Time will progress end up very different from each other.

Nowhere are these contrasting visions made more clear than in Fog on the Barrow-downs, with the Barrow-wight's incantation to keep Sam, Merry, and Pippin asleep in a barrow until the end of time, and Tom Bombadil's spell-destroying answering song that wakes them up and frees them.

The Barrow-wight chants:

"In the black wind the stars shall die,
And still on gold here let them lie,
Till the dark lord lifts his hand
Over dead sea and withered land."

This verse obliquely refers to five of the most powerful of the Valar: wind = Manwë, stars = Varda, gold = Aulë, sea = Ulmo, and land = Yavanna, and their specific arenas of control which the Dark Lord (which I'm just going to assume refers not to Sauron but to Morgoth, though it could be either) will have taken possession of and corrupted or destroyed.

This vision is very dark indeed. The end of the world will be the Dark Lord lifting his hand (presumably to wipe the whole of Arda out of existence) over a broken, corrupted, wasteland with no life anywhere to be found.

In contrast, Tom Bombadil, when called, enters asserting his power and his right to challenge the Barrow-wight:

"No one has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the master:
His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster."

When you consider that the world of Arda was sung into existence, Tom's claim here of 'stronger songs' is the strongest, boldest claim anyone can make. And he defeats the Barrow-wight with a song, appropriately:

"Get out, you old Wight! Vanish in the sunlight!
Shrivel like the cold mist, like the winds go wailing,
Out into the barren lands far beyond the mountains!
Come never here again! Leave your barrow empty!
Lost and forgotten be, darker than the darkness,
Where gates stand forever shut, till the world is mended."

He counteracts darkness with sunlight, and sends the Barrow-wight into the winds, over the mountains. I'm pretty sure here that he's not just talking about the Misty Mountains, but the 'barren lands' he refers to are the Void of Night, where the Barrow-wight's master, Morgoth, already dwells, and where 'gates stand forever shut,' keeping Morgoth out, until the time comes for the world to end in a final great battle, the Dagor Dagorath, and then become Arda Remade, Arda Mended.

To find out about what Arda Remade could be, we have to have a look at the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, a discussion between a wise-woman of the First Age, and Finrod Felagund. As Andreth and Finrod debate the different fates of Elves and Men, and discuss what the purpose of Men is in Arda, Finrod suddenly riffs:

"This then, I propound, was the errand of Men, not the followers, but the heirs and fulfillers of all: to heal the Marring of Arda, already foreshadowed before their devising; and to do more, as agents of the magnificence of Eru: to enlarge the Music and surpass the Vision of the World! For that Arda Healed shall not be Arda Unmarred, but a third thing and a greater, and yet the same."

Men (and hobbits, too, as a subset of the Race of Men) are not Followers or Secondborn, they are the redeemers, made to heal the hurts of the world, and then to expound the vision of Eru himself, and at the end of days, to fix and mend Arda. Indeed, Frodo and Sam (and Gollum) heal the world by destroying the Ring, Aragorn and Arwen are also agents of healing to the world, and this resounds down to Éowyn and Faramir's romance as well. They do things the Valar cannot achieve, that those greater or wiser than them could not fully foresee, because they are mortal.

Tom Bombadil protects and saves the hobbits from the Barrow-wight just as he did from Old Man Willow (only after they call for help). He sees their purpose, and their destiny, to play a great role in the fate of the world, even though he can only take them as far as his own borders.

In Finrod's vision of Arda Mended, Men are the deliverers, the redeemers, and yet the Elves play a part:

"And then suddenly I beheld as a vision Arda Remade; and there the Eldar completed but not ended could abide in the present for ever, and there walk, maybe, with the Children of Men, their deliverers, and sing to them such songs as, even in the Bliss beyond bliss, should make the green valleys ring and the everlasting mountain-tops to throb like harps.'

Then Andreth looked under her brows at Finrod: 'And what, when ye were not singing, would ye say to us?' she asked.

Finrod laughed. 'I can only guess,' he said. 'Why, wise lady, I think that we should tell you tales of the Past and of Arda that was Before, of the perils and great deeds and the making of the Silmarils! We were the lordly ones then! But ye, ye would then be at home, looking at all things intently, as your own. Ye would be the lordly ones."

A vision of great hope and beauty, of a mended world, and a reunion of Elves and Men. I can only imagine that Elrond and Arwen spoke of this at their final parting, in hope that one day they would see each other again. And of course there are songs! Songs created the world, songs sustain the world, songs provide protection and guidance and hope when all is lost.

Arda Mended, Arda Remade, will take the Song, the symphony, with which creation itself began, and the Children of Eru will add their own voices and visions to it, and make the world anew.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, nicely done! I love the theme of creative Music that runs through the Professor's world.

Thank you! It's long been a fascination of mine!

I really like the analysis of the passage and also how you link it to the Athrabeth!

Thanks! I could not resist shoving a bit of Finrod being the pre-eminent geek that he is in there, and that glorious bit of snark from Andreth!

Oh, I never thought about this connection between the Great Music, the Themes, and songs like Tom Bombadil's and the Barrow-wight's! But of course it's there! Well done. :)

Thank you! I love this part of Tolkien's worldbuilding so much!

Music has always been such a force in Tolkien. The world is sung into existence, Finrod sang his enchantments, the Ents sang when they destroyed Isenguard, it's there everywhere from start to finish. I've always believed in a Universe of Song. Very well done!

- Erulisse (one L)

Thank you! Yes, the fact that song is such a powerful force is one of the things I love most about playing in the world of Arda!

I need a much bigger 'heart' button for this entire post.

But here's a thought for you:

"Till the dark lord lifts his hand"

He lifts his hand. He LIFTS it.

" till the world is mended."

Could there be hope beyond the end of the world, even for Barrow-wights...?

Ahhh, you have such good points!

He lifts his hand. He LIFTS it.

And beyond that lifting of his hand there is no further vision of the end of the world, on the dark side of things. One wonders if even Morgoth suspects that Eru will prevent total destruction, at that point.

"till the world is mended."

Yes, yes, yes! *ecstatic cheering* Hope even for Barrow-wights! For nothing was evil in the beginning, so maybe nothing will be evil in the end...?

"...And thou, Melkor shalt see that no theme may be played that has not its uttermost source in me... [Melkor] hath bethought him of bitter cold immoderate, and yet hath not destroyed the beauty of thy fountains or of thy clear pools..."

I love the bit where Ulmo says he never thought of snowflakes!

It's so hopeful. And so typically Tolkien that the bit that is most philosophical comes partly from Bombadil, who is so utterly odd and inexplicable!

That's amazing. I know I like to think that even Orcs can be saved after the Ending of the World. So yes, hope even for Barrow-wights!

In "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil", Tom binds a barrow-wight into his barrow, and the barrow-wight weeps bitterly, alone in his barrow.

Many years ago a small bunn was quite ridiculously upset by this: I am so invested in redemption for barrow-wights. :-D

A really interesting essay.
I love that Tolkien made music so essential to Arda. There at the start. The very essence from where everything came.
And the discord of Melkor deciding to go his own way and make greater his part.
I believe that Tolkien himself said he disliked allegory, and yet the music and Melkor's discord run through everything as evil against good.
And I agree with you that all the songs and verses relate to that underpinning theme.

Thank you! I think this fits in with 'applicability' which Tolkien was in favour of -- that you could compare one thing to another, but not directly correlate something fictional to something in the real world as you do in allegory.

I loved this. You gave me a lot to think about.

Thank you! :)

This is a beautifully written and constructed essay -- almost poetry in itself. But I find the content so interesting too. I had never thought of juxtaposing Finrod and Tom Bombadil, but I love that idea. Tom Bombadil won a song-duel with a Barrow-wight! Why did I never notice this?? Maybe that's how it was supposed to happen when Finrod did it! And I'm not very familiar with the Athrabeth, so I love having that brought in too. That Elrond and Arwen would have spoken about such things at their final parting seems utterly appropriate and perfect.

(And I know "who/what is Tom Bombadil" is a very vexed question, but I had also not consciously noticed that apparently he has the power/authority to send things into the outer darkness, which is interesting and perhaps slightly disturbing. Though maybe that's just a natural consequence of the wight being banished from where it was.)

There's a lot to think about here -- thank you for writing this.

This is a really neat analysis!

Dark vs Light: Contrasting Visions of the End of the World by amyfortuna

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