OK, I'm reading the book now, and I remember in the FOTR the 4 hobbits either talk about or run into these things called Barrow Wights. Unfortunately, I had one of those zone out periods where I kind of glazed over for half a page.

Anyway, I had to put the book down when I zoned. When I picked it back up the next day, I had forgot about them and kept reading, and now Pippin is talking about wights later on and I can't for the life of me find the part in FOTR where I read about them!

What are they exactly, and what was the interaction between them and the hobbits in the first book?

what they are is sort of vague...my interpretation is that they were sort of like ghosts that make their own fog. if you went in their little area, they were likely to take your stuff and/or kill you.

the hobbits were saved by tom bombadil after being captured by the wights. neither the barrow wights or tom bombadil are referenced in the film. i didn't miss them much myself, but i saw the movie before i read the book so that might have influenced my judgement.

They are ghoulish specters of souls long dead. Kind of like the cast of Celebrity Mole.

Best definition of Barrow Wights ever!

Tolkien did a piss poor job of describing them. He'll spend a page describing a new bit of scenary, and then glosses over things like the Barrowights, and does the helms deep battle in like two pages.

Don't get me wrong, I love the book, but I'd have loved more descriptive battlescenes and what nots, and less description of landscapes.

????

aaahhh, Snakes...