Barrow-Wights

In J.R.R. Tolkien's ficitonal Lord of the Rings trilogy, barrow-wights are the ghosts of evil men from the old kingdom of Carn Dûm, located in the northern Misty Mountains. The lord of the ringwraiths was king of Carn Dum. They are called barrow-wights because they were sent by the witch king to inhabit the barrows of the kings of Arnor. The word wight comes from an Anglo-Saxon (Old English) word for "person". Some readers believe barrow wights to be non-human, but they were the tormented human servant ghosts of the witch king. These evil ghosts were akin to the Ringwraiths, but far less powerful. In his manuscripts for The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien wrote about them being very close to the ringwraiths, and chasing them from the barrows after Tom Bombadil's rescue on horseback.