Reimagining the barrow-wight

So I was thinking about how there are a few different depictions of barrow-wights in folklore and fantasy fiction. That inspired to write this post imagining different variations on the basic concept. Sorry, no rules for now.

At its most basic, a barrow-wight is a tomb guardian. But what is it and where did it come from? Is it the ghost of the interred? A spirit purposely bound to guard it? A spontaneous genius loci that jealousy guards it?

Here are a few ideas:

The Angry Dead

"You can't take it with you" goes the proverb, but that didn't stop these guys from trying. Whenever a grave robbing adventurer tries to plunder this tomb, the spirits of the interred awaken and attack. The spirits will keep attacking, using whatever means at their disposal, until the robbers flee or are dead. If the robbers took anything with them, then the spirits may be able to follow or the stolen treasure will be cursed until returned. These barrow-wights are unlikely to reanimate slain intruders on a permanent basis, though they may use the bodies as gruesome warnings and puppets to attack future intruders.

The Bound Guardian

When this barrow was constructed, the priests of the local religion summoned and bound a spirit to defend the tomb from grave robbers. The exact nature of such spirits is variable, as there are many kinds of spirits to summon that would be useful as tomb guardians. These spirits will generally not be able to wander far from the barrow due to the bindings, which will probably not allow them to recover stolen treasure either. However, these spirits are more likely to unintentionally reanimate victims as free-willed self-sufficient undead. While the barrow-wight won't hesitate to destroy any such "offspring" that remain close to the barrow, it can't pursue those who manage to escape.

The Jealous Hoarder

This spirit was neither interred nor summoned: it came to haunt the barrow of its own accord and feels entitled to the treasure therein. This spirit has no limitations on its movements and will able to pursue thieves across the world, although they're unlikely to leave their barrows unguarded for long. The nature of these spirits are easily the most variable, with draconic forms being a popular manifestation. They will likely be prone to adding more trinkets to the hoard, which can attract unwanted attention if they aren't careful to cover their tracks.

Lichame and haugbúi

In prior posts I discussed the etymology of monster names lich and wight as well as how they are misused by fantasy gaming. This post will be an addendum to that.

The word wight originates from Norse and meant various things including "supernatural being" and "wretch." Tolkien used it in the compound "barrow-wight" (translating to "grave-men") to refer to some malevolent ghosts haunting a burial mound. In Norse mythology, such undead tied to their burial mounds were referred to as haugbúi (“mound-dweller”). Other types of undead included draugr (“revenant”) and aptrgangr (“again-walker”).

The word haugbúi is a compound of the accusative singular of haugr (“burial mound”) plus third-person singular present subjunctive of búa (“to reside”). Literally, “(s/he) that resides (in/at) the burial mound.” A hypothetical English cognate would be the compound howe-bound that I just invented as of this writing.

In German translations of elf-games, liches are referred to as Leichnam because the cognate Leiche is already the German word for "corpse." Leichnam is a respectful way of referring to corpses. (I suspect the respectfulness originates from the tradition of shrouding both holy objects and corpses.) The English cognate is lichame, equivalent to lich (“corpse”) + hame (“covering”). This fits oddly well with phylactery, originally meaning “reliquary, safeguard.”

As something of a grammar nazi, I dislike the misuse of lich and wight to refer to specific undead monsters. So I would prefer to refer to the monsters as, for example, lichame “no life king” (a la Dungeon Seeker manga) and draugr “grave-man” or “crypt horror”. This would free up the words lich and wight to be used in broader contexts as with their dictionary definitions.

ADDENDUM 7/9/2019: The German translation of D&D renders “wight” as Gruftschrecken, from Gruft + Schrecken meaning “crypt horror.” The German translation of Tolkien renders “barrow-wight” as Grabunhold, from Grab + Unhold meaning “grave monster/fiend.”

Etymology of liches, wights and zombies

This post is an expansion of my last post dealing with etymology, specifically with regard to the undead. In this post, I discuss liches, wights and zombies, their etymology, how it changed, and alternatives for those etymological determinists out there.

That monster's name does not mean what you think

Many of fantasy gaming's monsters originate from mythic, legendary, folkloric and literary sources. In many cases their portrayal in mangled in the process. For example, a number of monsters have name which had completely different meanings before being co-opted by fantasy gaming.

Elementals primer

What are elementals? Generally speaking¹, elementals are masses of base matter animated by a possessing demon, spirit, undead or other entity. They may be broadly divided into two groups: wights² and works³. Wights are the prototypical amorphous and homogenous elemental, which are the "elementals" presented in 13 True Ways. Works are elementals that have been somehow shaped into a more or less fixed form with unique traits.

Beyond air, earth, fire and water, there is also the fifth element and variants of these five. The fifth element, or quintessence, encompasses lots of weird things and will not be discussed here. Variants of the classical four elements include lightning, smoke, mud, lava, ice, vapor and so forth. There isn't any difference between these and mixtures of different pure elements because they are platonic ideals unconnected with real world science.

13th Age Monthly Volume 1 introduced the Spirit type. Sometimes the distinction between elementals and spirits and constructs may be ambiguous. As stated above, an elemental is a dual entity consisting of an animating force such as a spirit and a body composed of normally inanimate matter. Whether the animating force is a demon, specter or nature spirit will determine their behavior and motivation. The most common elementals are animated by nature spirits and are responsible for causing physical phenomena like earthquakes, morning dew and frost on windows.

Constructs and elementals are similar because their bodies are composed of base matter and both have animating spirits bound into them, and in some cases constructs may animate spontaneously or self-replicate or display a metabolism. The key (and perhaps only) distinction is that a construct's body is always a recognizable artifice⁴, hence "construct." So-called "junk elementals" arising from scrap yards would therefore qualify as constructs rather than elementals even though likely animated by a nature spirit or ghost.

Contrary to popular belief, the elemental planes are not inhabited primarily or mostly by elementals. The elemental planes are inhabited by flora and fauna no less diverse than that of the tellurian.

Endnotes

1. As an adjective "elemental" may refer to anything related to the elemental planes and their elements, such as the giants and various beasts which inhabit them.
2. The word "wight" means "a person of a specified kind, especially one regarded as unfortunate" or "a spirit, ghost, or other supernatural being." The undead of that name are properly known as mortwights or literally "dead people."
3. This is derived by analogy from the dictionary words earthwork, firework and waterworks.
4. This is similar to the distinction between a flesh golem and a zombie.