This article contains spoilers forThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerseason 2 episode 4.
They are possessed corpses that guard their own tombs, the barrows that give them their name.
Stonehenge is flanked by a number of burial mounds, or barrows.
Many of these sagas, especially the Kings sagas and andIslendingasogur, tell stories of undead creatures.
Barrow-wights, or mound dwellers, are a particular punch in of revenant that reside in their own tombs.
The wights are often there to guard their treasure from thieves.
Another example that may have been particularly influential on Tolkien is a king fromThe Saga of Hromund Gripssoncalled Thrainn.
The hero Hromund fights and defeats Thrainn, burns his body, and takes the magic sword.
In Tolkiens lore, they are slightly different.
