I suppose that this point of Fea (sing.?, elven spirits) who refuse the summons of Mandos is not inconsistent with the Barrow-wights, but why would such spirits need to or want to inhabit the graves, armor and (to some extent) bodies of dead men?
No, the maliciousness, sacrificial and other imagery of the wights just doesn't feel right in the context of an elvish spirt, however, corrupted and trapped in the [Unseen] world of Middle-Earth. I think that Elven spirits might not have been so easily dismissed by Tom Bombadil, who would not have thought twice of wayward Human spirits, or even necessarily of Maia spirits, long since degraded and lost and now inferior to someone of his purity. Again, in someways Bombadil and the Wights may be offered as sort of equivalent opposites.
No, I would still see it as more meaningful [this being a world of fiction not fact] that the wights are really spirits derived from Men, who through sins and spells have been forced into a kind of eternal damnation (akin to the Nazgul) on earth, which has disrrupted the otherwise prevailing power of Eru to draw their spirits beyond the Circles of Arda. What happened to the bodies of these Men of Carn Dûm is not necessarily relevant.
Arguably the Dead Men of Dunharrow would never have been given leave of this world without the "opportunity" to right their wrong, which arose from an oath administered and witnessed by simply another man, Isildur. They, of course, wanted to leave, were repentent, performed penance and were not maliciously evil, in not requiring of sacrifices.
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"Yes, the Dead ride behind. They have been summoned,"
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The hoes unrecked in the fields were flung, __ and fallen ladders in the long grass lay __ of the lush orchards; every tree there turned __ its tangled head and eyed them secretly, __ and the ears listened of the nodding grasses; __ though noontide glowed on land and leaf, __ their limbs were chilled.
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