Flammifer
Well-Known Member
.)Ooh, that does sound like turning Orcs into Wraiths, doesn't it? I'd always thought of it more metaphorically, but it could be quite literal!
OTOH, I don't think it's at all similar to creating a Barrow-wight. I think of Barrow-wights as dead bodies inhabited and reanimated by evil spirits: exactly the opposite of separating the spirit and the body of a living being.
Hi Jim,
It does sound like Gorbag has either seen or heard of Nazgul turning living beings into wraiths, doesn't it? (I don't think necessarily just Orcs?)
Your interpretation of Barrow-wights as dead bodies inhabited and reanimated by evil spirits, seems to be a common interpretation. But, is there any evidence?
The barrows were burial places. "Gold was piled on the biers of dead kings and queens; and mounds covered them, and the stone doors were shut, and the grass grew over all."
But, the Barrow-wights did not arrive until long afterwards, when, one would think, any bodies had rotted away leaving only bones. "Sheep walked for a while biting the grass, but soon the hills were empty again."
"A shadow came out of dark places far away, and the bones were stirred in the mounds. Barrow-wights walked in the hollow places with a clink of rings on cold fingers, and gold chains in the wind."
None of Tom Bombadil's history indicates that the Barrow-wights are inhabiting the dead bodies of those buried in the barrows.
When Frodo first sees a Barrow-wight, he does not see a dead body or an animated skeleton, "Trembling he looked up, in time to see a tall dark figure like a shadow against the stars. It leaned over him. He thought there were two eyes, very cold though lit with a pale light that seemed to come from some remote distance." That sounds a lot like Sam's account of The Gaffer's description of a Black Rider (the first description we get), "He was tall and black-like, and he stooped over me."
When Frodo sees the arm of the Barrow-wight, walking on it's fingers towards the hilt of the sword, he appears to see an arm, not a skeleton arm.
I don't think there is any evidence that the Barrow-wights have taken over the bodies or skeletons of the dead in the barrows?
So, what are the Barrow-wights? I don't think there is enough evidence to know. My wild conjecture is that they seem to have appeared about the time when Angmar had defeated the Eastern Kingdoms of divided Arnor. Perhaps they were placed there by the Witch King? Perhaps they were wraiths, wraithified by the Witch King, as Gorbag seems to suggest? Somehow linked to the barrows (or the treasure in the barrows) by the power of the Witch King? Perhaps as a defence of sorts, on the western borders of Angmar ruled territory?
It is a very thin speculation. Not supported by much evidence. However, there are a number of connections between the Nazgul and the Barrow-wights (thematic connections more than direct connections) to make me suspect that they are similar. The way that weapons which damage them are themselves destroyed in the blow. The emphasis on the eyes that Frodo sees, "very cold though lit with a pale light", and the eyes of the Witch King on Pelennor Fields, "between rim and robe naught was there to see, save only a deadly gleam of eyes", and, "He bent over her like a cloud, and his eyes glittered; he raised his mace to kill."