: Maybe that's the origin of the Barrow-wights? Hillmen reduced to ghosts by the Witch-King?

Hillmen reduced to ghosts by the Witch King, you say...

AFAICS the whole idea that the barrow-wights are anything other than the unquiet -- or 'disquieted' -- souls of the inhabitants of the barrows comes from JRRT's commitment to the idea that mannish souls go beyond the Circles of the World the moment they die, and therefore cannot be called back by Necromancy or anything else. Hence the concept I read somewhere that the barrow wights must be ensorcelled ELVEN spirits placed into the barrows of dead Men; this logic is so convoluted it simply beggars belief.

If Men can be made wraiths by the Nine, then why can't we admit their souls can be trapped or tricked into lingering by other methods too, and without anything needing to be 'called back' this can result in their souls hanging around. The magicks of Mannish sorcerers desperate to defeat their Death is an obvious principle to draw on.

Such persistence in M-e is of course against the Scheme of Things and results in the souls concerned becoming deeply twisted and corrupt... Barrow-wights, indeed!

This is my own idea, and I like it enough that I fully intend to reinterpret canon from this perspective for the purposes of my own game, but if there are any clear references to support or refute it, I would love to explore it in further depth.

Osric P-)