Do any of Tolkien's notes actually confirm that the Barrow wights are maiar? Tolkien Author of the Century suggested that they might be spirits of men you can see the implications of that
-> No, certainly not, in contrary, he says that they are "evil spirits" and winds of Angmar and most probably "souls" of Mortals who are not able / unwilling to depart from the World.
The Barrow-downs, as the name says, were the barrows of the Arnorean Kings; the kings of two thirds of the splitted Arnor (ie of Rhudaur and Cardolan) indeed bowed down to the might of Angmar before the end of their realms, and the last two kings or so of Rhudaur were even allied with Angmar.
They might be bound to the world like the Nazgūl and the Grey Host of Erech, either because they followed the Witchking and the power of his ring (imo unlikely) or because their lives were simply unfulfilled - or they found some kind of "evil" immortality, like the Mouth of Sauron (imo also unlikely)
The fact that they desperately try to sacrifice their victims like also the hobbits while speaking their famous lines about the death of the Sun etc kinda indicates that they're still slaves to some evil power like the Witchking of Angmar; They were maybe released after the destruction of the Ring.
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But is there any guarantee that they were evil men remember in the dead marshes not all the phantom corpses were of evildoers, but they are "ALL foul" and "a fell light" is in the lot of them! The most obvious explanation is that this is an illusion of Sauron's designed to cause loss of morale, but still it does not inspire agreeable thoughts...
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Last edited by shaber on Jul 23rd, 2004 at 05:35 PM
The author of Tolkien Author of the Century suggested that these motifs could signify that all the dead are rotten and the Barrow wights are those who fought against the witchking, but suffered a mental as well as physical decomposition in death If all the dead are malevolent then the phantoms in the Dead Marshes might really be there after all
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psychic decomposition
you can see the implications of that 
Jul 23rd, 2004 04:11 PM
