Mithril coat

The Mithril coat is a small shirt of mail, close-woven of many rings, that Bilbo Baggins presents to Frodo Baggins in the privacy of Bag End before the hobbits set out on their journey. It is a gift of extraordinary provenance and power: the dwarf-mail that Thorin Oakenshield gave to Bilbo during the Quest of Erebor, recovered by Bilbo from Michel Delving before he started, and packed among the mementoes of his Journey. The coat is described as being as supple almost as linen, cold as ice, and harder than steel; it shines like moonlit silver and is studded with white gems, and it comes with a belt of pearl and crystal. Bilbo, who had brought all the mementoes of his Journey away with him except the Ring, tells Frodo that he did not expect to use the coat and does not need it now, except to look at sometimes, and that one hardly feels any weight when putting it on. The gift is thus framed from the first as an object of memory and protection, a relic of Bilbo's own adventure passed on to his heir, and a practical safeguard against the dangers that lie ahead.

The Gift and Its Giver

The scene of the gift is charged with intimacy and secrecy. Bilbo brings out the parcel, which seems rather heavy for its size, and unwinds several folds of old cloth to reveal the shirt. Frodo's first reaction is one of hesitation: he says he should not look right in it, and Bilbo agrees, saying he said the same thing himself, but urges Frodo to wear it under his outer clothes. Bilbo asks Frodo to share this secret with him and not to tell anybody else, and he confesses that he would feel happier if he knew Frodo was wearing it, adding in a low voice that he has a fancy it would turn even the knives of the Black Riders. Frodo accepts, and Bilbo puts the coat on him, fastening Sting upon the glittering belt, after which Frodo covers it with his old weather-stained breeches, tunic, and jacket. The moment establishes the coat as a hidden layer of protection, unknown to the rest of the Company, and as a bond of trust between the two Bagginses, with Bilbo's foreboding about the Black Riders proving prophetic.

The Mithril Coat Revealed

The coat's true worth becomes visible only after the attack at Weathertop, when Aragorn strips off Frodo's old jacket and worn tunic to examine his wounds. Aragorn gives a gasp of wonder and then laughs, as the silver corslet shimmers before his eyes like the light upon a rippling sea. He takes it off carefully and holds it up, and the gems glitter like stars, while the sound of the shaken rings is like the tinkle of rain in a pool. Aragorn calls out to his friends, exclaiming that here is a pretty hobbit-skin to wrap an elven-princeling in, and that if it were known that hobbits had such hides, all the hunters of Middle-earth would be riding to the Shire. Gimli, gazing at the mail in wonder, declares that it is a mithril-coat, and that he has never seen or heard tell of one so fair, asking whether this is the coat that Gandalf spoke of, and concluding that Gandalf undervalued it, but that it was well given. Merry, for his part, says he has often wondered what Frodo and Bilbo were doing, so close in his little room, and blesses the old hobbit, loving him more than ever and hoping they get a chance of telling him about it. The revelation transforms the coat from a private secret into a marvel witnessed by the whole Company, and it draws attention to the dwarven craft and the legendary metal mithril, which Gimli, as a dwarf, recognizes and reveres.

The Coat's Protection and the Wounds Beneath

The examination of the coat reveals the extent of the danger Frodo has survived. There is a dark and blackened bruise on Frodo's right side and breast, and under the mail there is a shirt of soft leather, but at one point the rings have been driven through it into the flesh. Frodo's left side also is scored and bruised where he was hurled against the wall. The mithril coat has turned the knives of the Black Riders, exactly as Bilbo fancied it would, but the force of the blows has still left its mark, driving the rings through the leather into Frodo's body. Aragorn bathes the hurts with water in which athelas is steeped, and the pungent fragrance fills the dell, refreshing and strengthening all those who stoop over the steaming water; soon Frodo feels the pain leave him and his breath grows easy, though he remains stiff and sore to the touch for many days. Aragorn binds some soft pads of cloth at his side. The scene thus pairs the coat's miraculous protection with the reality of Frodo's suffering, showing that even the finest dwarven mail cannot fully shield its wearer from the power of the Ringwraiths, and that Frodo's survival is a narrow thing, bought at the cost of lasting wounds.

The Coat and the Journey into Darkness

The mithril coat accompanies Frodo into the darkest reaches of his quest, and its presence is felt even when it is not explicitly mentioned. After Frodo and Samwise Gamgee flee from the Company, they find themselves lost among the barren slopes and stones of the Emyn Muil, climbing and labouring for hours, sometimes retracing their steps because they can find no way forward, sometimes discovering that they have wandered in a circle back to where they had been hours before. Sam stands despondently with hunched shoulders beside Frodo, peering out with puckered eyes into the gloom, and declares that they are in a fix and no mistake. The hobbits stand on the brink of a tall cliff, bare and bleak, its feet wrapped in mist, with the broken highlands crowned with drifting cloud behind them, and a chill wind blowing from the East. Far away to the right, the Anduin, which had gleamed fitfully in sun-breaks during the day, is now hidden in shadow, but their eyes do not look beyond the River, back to Gondor, to their friends, to the lands of Men; instead they stare south and east to where, at the edge of the oncoming night, a dark line hangs like distant mountains of motionless smoke, and every now and again a tiny red gleam far away flickers upwards on the rim of earth and sky. Sam observes that this is the one place in all the lands they have ever heard of that they do not want to see any closer, and the one place they are trying to get to, and that they cannot get down, and if they did get down, they would find all that green land a nasty bog. The coat, hidden under Frodo's clothes, is a silent companion on this desolate journey, a piece of Bilbo's world and of the Company's fellowship carried into the heart of Mordor's shadow, even as the hobbits are cut off from all their friends and all the lands of Men.

The Significance of the Mithril Coat

The mithril coat is more than a piece of armor; it is a concentrated emblem of the themes that run through the whole of the story. It is a gift of dwarven craft, forged from the most precious metal in Middle-earth, and it links Frodo to the legacy of Thorin Oakenshield and the Quest of Erebor, the adventure that made Bilbo the hobbit he is. It is a token of Bilbo's love and foresight, given with the specific hope that it will protect Frodo from the Black Riders, a hope that is fulfilled at Weathertop. It is also a hidden layer of identity, worn under old weather-stained clothes, so that Frodo's true protection is invisible to those around him, a secret shared only with Bilbo until the moment of revelation. The coat's appearance before the Company draws together the hobbits, the dwarf, and the Ranger in a moment of shared wonder, and it underscores the value of the humble hobbits who carry such treasures without display. Finally, the coat's failure to prevent all harm, leaving bruises and scored flesh beneath the rings, is a reminder that even the greatest protection cannot remove all suffering, and that Frodo's quest will leave its mark on him no matter what armor he wears. The mithril coat thus stands as a symbol of the gifts of the past that sustain the present, of the bonds of friendship that endure across distance and danger, and of the limits of protection in the face of overwhelming darkness.