Is the barrow-wight the creepiest of Tolkien's creations?

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Faramir Jones

I always thought that the barrow-wight, while not the scariest, was certainly among the creepiest of Tolkien's creations. While the others might kill you, or torture then kill you, would they take your clothes off and put on a white robe?

Actually I did find the Barrow wight very scary when I first read LOTR but I was very young and since you put it like that I see that it may also have tallied with a preexisting terror of doctors - the result of being used for medical research as a toddler. It also may have influenced more positively another literary fascination since I wrote my dissertation on the horror stories of Guy de Maupassant and the first of those I ever read was about a severed hand. Yes deeply creepy.