Where: Book 1 Chapter 8 — Fog on the Barrow-downs

Summary: The beginning of the chapter concludes the four's stay with Tom Bombadil and the departure from the Old Forest, managing to say goodbye to Goldberry when she appears to them on a hilltop overseeing a large portion of the land. Around noon, they stop at a hill with a large standing stone on it, eating lunch in the shade and accidentally falling asleep. They wake up at around sunset in a thickening fog, to which they hurriedly cleaned up their things and mounted their ponies, intent to reach the Road they were traveling on before they took their detour into the Old Forest to avoid the Dark Riders.

They eventually come across two standing stones that stood next to each other, though Frodo only takes notice of them while he passes through what he initially perceives to be the way to the northern end of the Barrow-downs. Immediately, darkness falls around him, and after his pony throws him onto the ground and runs off, he starts calling for the other three. He hears them calling out to him, but it seems very distant, and is followed by a disquieting shriek. And then silence. Frodo, fearful and alone, goes in the direction of the voices, still calling out them as he starts to climb up a hill. He eventually reaches the top, where the darkness starts to let up some, revealing that he went the wrong way. Suddenly, a voice calls out, and Frodo attempts to flee but falls onto the ground. A large figure looms over him, blotting out the stars as they claim that they had been expecting him. They then grab him, their icy grip the last thing he feels before he falls unconscious.

He wakes up inside the barrow sometime later unable to move, and remembering Bilbo, starts to wonder if this is where his adventure ends. He manages to regain mobility not too long after, and he looks around to discover, to his horror, that all four of them were lying next to each other clad in thin pale robes and covered in various jewelry. The other three are unconscious and cold to the touch. Surrounding them is all sorts of treasure, though their appeal is lost on Frodo as he subsequently notices a long sword atop their necks. He starts to hear a haunting incantation as a long arm, crawling on its fingertips, starts to make its way over them from a passage within the room. Frodo contemplates putting on the ring and fleeing without his friends, but he summons his resolve; Managing to stand up, grab a sword, and chop the hand off the arm, breaking the blade. He tries to wake up Merry to no avail, but remembers the song that Tom told them to sing should they find themselves in a situation much like this. Frodo starts to sing, the words strong despite his fear, and he suddenly hears what sounds like Tom singing the next few verses in response from somewhere outside of the Barrow. The wall shatters, daylight pouring in as Tom indeed marches in, revealing the hobbits' captors to be barrow-wights as he casts them away.

He and Frodo get the other hobbits as well as the treasure out into the field, and Tom wakes the three of them up. He informs them that the clothes on their person before the barrow-wights accosted them are pretty much gone, but that they should frolic and celebrate their lives. He departs and shortly returns with their ponies, and after they get dressed they divvy the treasure amongst themselves. He gives the hobbits a dagger each for self-defense. Tom then leads them out to the Road, talking about the landscape as well as the kingdoms that once inhabited them. Upon finally reaching the Road, he directs them to their next destination—a village called Bree. Specifically, a pub within the village known as The Prancing Pony, and in addition, he instructs them to talk to a Barliman Butterbur. Despite the hobbits' pleading for him to stay one more night with them, he gently refuses and encourages them to be on their way, saying that he's reached the bounds of his country and that he must return to Goldberry.

The chapter ends with the hobbits hurriedly running into Bree.