No, you're correct, glow requires a light. You can link a light to the object with the glow though. When you create the light, ensure that "illuminates by default" is off. Select the light source and the object, in lighting/shading menu (render menu set), select object centric light linking. This will assign the light to the object only. Then you can render the glow without the light brightening up the whole scene. Tip you should probably disable "use default lighting" in the globals.
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