Barrow-wight

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Barrow-wights are wraith-like creatures in J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth, based on the Old Norse Draugr. Barrow refers to the burial mounds they inhabited and wight is an Middle English word for "living being" or "creature", especially "human being".^[1] It does not necessarily mean "spirit" or "ghost"; it is cognate to modern German "Wicht", meaning small mythical creatures (also "Wichtelmännchen"). Tolkien borrowed this concept from Norse mythology, see e.g. Waking of Angantyr and Hrómundar saga Gripssonar. The name Barrow-wight itself was first recorded 1891^[2].

Evil spirits of some kind (perverted Maiar or possibly spirits of Orcs, fallen Avari, or evil Men), they were sent to the Barrow-downs by the Witch-king of Angmar in order to prevent a resurrection of the destroyed Dúnedain kingdom of Cardolan.

They animated the dead bones of the Dúnedain buried there, as well as older bones of Edain from the First Age which still were buried there.

During the War of the Ring, Frodo Baggins and company were trapped in the Barrow-downs, and nearly slain by wights. It has been speculated that Frodo was trapped in the cairn of the last prince of Cardolan. Frodo sliced off the wight's hand; then, when the wight extinguished the dim light in the cavern where the company was imprisoned, Frodo called upon Tom Bombadil, who performed a sort of exorcism on the barrow.

[edit] Other versions of the legendarium

Due to his inspiration from Hrómundar saga Gripssonar, during the writing of The Lord of the Rings (see The History of The Lord of the Rings) Tolkien at first foresaw a link between the wights and the Ringwraiths, initially describing the Black Riders as horsed wights, but the suggestion that they were the same kind of creatures was dropped in the published work. In the final work there remained a link between them: the wights were now spirits sent by the Witch-king of Angmar.

[edit] In other media

Barrow-wights have appeared in several games based on Tolkien's writings.

In a mission of the Evil campaign in The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, a real-time strategy game based on the book instead of the Peter Jackson films, Saruman merges barrow-wights with Orcs to create the Uruk-hai.

In The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, a real-time strategy game based on the Peter Jackson films as well as the book, barrow-wights appear as creeps on skirmish maps. They are also created when a Nazgûl kills a unit with its Morgul Blade ability.

The idea of spirits possessing dead men's bones was used in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King video game, with the spirits of the Dead Men of Dunharrow possessing their old skeletons and attacking Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli on the Paths of the Dead.

In the game Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Frodo faces the barrow-wight as a boss. It is shown as a full body. Although in the Xbox version great hands burst out of the ground and hit Frodo. The Playstation 2 version has ghost-like creatures emerge from the ground.

In the online game The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar Barrow-Wights are portrayed as zombies and are located in the Barrow-Downs and many other locations in the game.