This is a beautifully written and constructed essay -- almost poetry in itself. But I find the content so interesting too. I had never thought of juxtaposing Finrod and Tom Bombadil, but I love that idea. Tom Bombadil won a song-duel with a Barrow-wight! Why did I never notice this?? Maybe that's how it was supposed to happen when Finrod did it! And I'm not very familiar with the Athrabeth, so I love having that brought in too. That Elrond and Arwen would have spoken about such things at their final parting seems utterly appropriate and perfect.

(And I know "who/what is Tom Bombadil" is a very vexed question, but I had also not consciously noticed that apparently he has the power/authority to send things into the outer darkness, which is interesting and perhaps slightly disturbing. Though maybe that's just a natural consequence of the wight being banished from where it was.)

There's a lot to think about here -- thank you for writing this.