Barrow-wight

Tolkien coined the English compound 'barrow-wight' as an invented name for an evil, tomb-associated spirit in his Middle-earth legendarium, drawing on Old Norse concepts of mound-dweller undead (haugbúar, draugr) and saga monsters such as Glámr. In The Lord of the Rings, barrow-wights appear in the Barrow-downs; Tolkien further frames the Barrow-downs wights as spirits sent by the Witch-king of Angmar to hinder the restoration of a Númenórean line.

Sources describe barrow-wights as wraith-like and associated with dim inner light or darkness within a barrow. In Tolkien's Barrow-downs episode the hobbits found themselves dressed in grave-goods—thin white clothes, gold circlets and chains, and weapons placed about them—after the wight had arranged them; during the struggle Frodo cut off a hand from the barrow-wight, which continued to writhe.

In Tolkien's account a barrow-wight inhabits an ancient cairn, can lay living intruders under an enchanted sleep or trance, arrange them as if for burial, and is associated with the barrow's contents until expelled by Tom Bombadil who recovers armaments for the hobbits. By explicit analogy to Norse saga material, mound-spirits in the older tradition possess superhuman strength and malice and may be overcome by heroic combat, after which treasure or heirlooms in the barrow may be revealed and reclaimed.