“This song, heard in "Fog on the Barrow-Downs,” is closely related to the Verse of the Rings. According to “The Hunt for the Ring” in Unfinished Tales, the King of the Nazgul visited the Wights just before the Hobbits ventured into the barrow-downs. The Barrow-wights served the King of the Nazgul during the Third Age, when he was known as the “Witch King of Angmar” and masterminded the collapse of the Kingdom of Arnor, once a realm of the Numenorians with a status equal to and in some respects higher than that of the Kingdom of Gondor. The Wights were probably originally human, but as Wights, they were evil spirits. The Witch King sent them to the barrows in 1636, at the time of a terrible plague. The Wight’s chant goes beyond the conflicts of the Second and Third Ages, back to the wars of the Valar with Melkor (Morgoth the Enemy). The failure of the Sun and the death of the Moon would mean the destruction of two vessels and the killing of two Maiar, Airen who guides the Sun, the last fruit of Laurelin, across the sky and Tilion who steers the Moon, the last flower of Telperion. According to “Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor” in The Simarillion, the Sun and Moon were made after the poisoning of the Two Trees to aid the Elves and hinder Morgoth. The stars were made by Varda before the beginning of the wars with Morgoth. The sea and the land were created by Ulmo and Yavanna respectively with the aid of Aule the Smith. If the dark lord were to lift his hand and destroy them, he would accomplish Morgoth’s original purposes before the beginning of days. The last of the Dunadain of Cardolan took refuge in the Barrow-downs (Tyrn Gortad) when Amon Sul or Weathertop fell to the Witch King in 1409. According to “The North-kingdom and the Dunadain” in Appendix A, the mounds of Tyrn Gorthad were built in the First Age by the “forefathers of the Edain.” They were revered by the Dundain who also buried some of their own kings there. The mound in which Frodo was held prisoner may have been the burial place of the last prince of Cardolan. "
