Analysis
The encounter with the Barrow-wight allows us to learn more about Tolkien’s vision of evil. Of course, Sauron emerges as the major figure of wickedness in The Lord of the Rings, the being whose nefarious intentions shape the plot of the novel. But Sauron does not have a monopoly on immorality or selfishness, and the presence of the Barrow-wight—or mound demon, as we might call him in more modern English—reminds us that nastiness in Tolkien comes in many shapes and sizes. There is nothing to indicate that the Barrow-wight has any connections with Sauron, or that it is doing anything to further Sauron’s aims. The demon is, in a sense, a free agent of evil. Yet even so, there are uncanny resemblances between the Barrow-wight and the Dark Lord. Like Sauron, the wight is in search of jewelry, and is willing to kill to get it. Moreover, the independently moving arm of the wight—which walks spookily on its fingers—may remind us of the severed finger of Sauron, detached when Isildur took the Ring from him. Neither the wight nor Sauron has a personality in The Lord of the Rings; they are incarnations of wickedness rather than fully formed characters. They reach and grab with no soul or personality, as if they have hands but no hearts or minds.
Analysis
The encounter with the Barrow-wight allows us to learn more about Tolkien’s vision of evil. Of course, Sauron emerges as the major figure of wickedness in The Lord of the Rings, the being whose nefarious intentions shape the plot of the novel. But Sauron does not have a monopoly on immorality or selfishness, and the presence of the Barrow-wight—or mound demon, as we might call him in more modern English—reminds us that nastiness in Tolkien comes in many shapes and sizes. There is nothing to indicate that the Barrow-wight has any connections with Sauron, or that it is doing anything to further Sauron’s aims. The demon is, in a sense, a free agent of evil. Yet even so, there are uncanny resemblances between the Barrow-wight and the Dark Lord. Like Sauron, the wight is in search of jewelry, and is willing to kill to get it. Moreover, the independently moving arm of the wight—which walks spookily on its fingers—may remind us of the severed finger of Sauron, detached when Isildur took the Ring from him. Neither the wight nor Sauron has a personality in The Lord of the Rings; they are incarnations of wickedness rather than fully formed characters. They reach and grab with no soul or personality, as if they have hands but no hearts or minds.
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