like Pippin's, may point forwards towards the descent into the Barrow.
This descent is depicted as a descent into a sea:
Fog rises up around the Hobbits who are on a hill: "They found that they were
upon an island in the fog." They go down the hill, "over the rim and
down the long northward slope of the hill, down into a foggy sea." Soon
"their hair hung lank and dripping on their foreheads." Their clothing is
"bedewed with grey drops."
As the Reverend says in his post
"water is a fundamentally POSITIVE image... [P]rogress is realizing
that he need not fear the water; there are good forces in motion as well as
bad." To add briefly to this, one of the positive associations of water
is its cleansing properties. Water, as you say, is frequently mentioned
in "In the House of Tom Bombadil," very often in the specific context of
"washing" (e.g. "Goldberry's washing day" or the ablutions which Tom offers his
guests when they enter his house and he ushers them into a room with "brown
ewers filled with water, some cold, some steaming
hot").
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All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
