[Merry Brandybuck]

I don't figure Barrow-Wights look like anything. Methinks they're ghosts, invisble like and intangible. But they can animate stuff. The way I see it, a barrow-wight animated that severed arm so it could chop us all to little pieces! I bet they could animate the skeletons in tombs as well. They're ghosts, ultimately. Very evil ones who hate the living. That has always been my take on them. Of course, that's pure speculation on my part. I've never actually read anything official on them.