Wights

Wights

wight is derived from Old English wiht, meaning "living being, creature". The related Old Saxon wiht means "thing, demon". It has been suggested that J.R.R. Tolkien had this later "connection to the underworld in mind when he chose to refer to the grave-spirits of the Barrow-downs as 'wights'". Many works of fantasy fiction, role-playing games and computer and video games use the term wight as the name of spectral creatures very similar to Tolkien's Barrow-wights: Dungeons and Dragons has created a monster called "Wight", a kind of undead, and the new terminology is also exemplified in A Song of Ice and Fire series: "Who has been beyond the wall of death to see? Only the wights, and we know what they are like. We know."