Burial ceremonies
 

Can anyone tell me about the burial ceremonies in different ME cultures - I mean of course, dwarves, hobbits and men, since elves are immortal. I realise this is closely linked with their concept of death, which is being discussed elsewhere, but I am more interested in the 'material' part of the burial: where and how.
<retreats and respectfully waits for the answers of the wiser ones>

Just off the top of my head: the Mark bury their dead; the Men of Gondor put theirs in mausolea; we know that the Arnorians put theirs in barrows, in fact most Men inter the deceased.
I'd take the tomb of Balin as an indication that the Dwarves also practice burial, beneath stone markers in accordance with their love of working stone, but I can't think of anything that indicates what Hobbits do with the remains of the departed. Anyone got a convenient quote?

After the battle of the Shire during which Saruman's soldiers are slain or chased away by stout hobbits, it is said in the book that those hobbits who were killed in the fighting were buried in a great barrow. This is just off the top of my head, though. I think there was also a marker to honour the brave Halflings who fought for the Shire.

Thanks, Telephirion; I was forgetting that. Time for a re-read, methinks.

The Men of Gondor, in the beginnings of the Third Age, had somewhat... questionable burial methods. When a loved one died, all his family and close friends gathered to his house. They would strip the body and cover it with goose feathers, and would each take a turn sleeping on it at night. No one wanted to be at the end, because the body was somewhat decayed by then. After everyone had taken a turn, which sometimes took over a month, the body was cut into equal proportions, so everyone could take a little piece of "Dave" home. This is all written in UT, page 157-159.

Thanks, everyone.
How about when Boromir died and they put him in a boat and sent him down a water stream, with a sword on his chest? And they recite that poem about the winds? That was reminiscent of the vikings' burial rituals. But maybe that wasn't an actual ritual?

When the poem about the winds is spoken, it is actually a secret way of the dead man's friends talking about the time he broke wind in front of the Baron. It was an embarassing time, and they don't want to bring it up in front of everyone.

They were a bit pressed for time to dig a grave:
The funeral of Boromir is, then, a hastily improvised affair. Their first choice would have been to bury him, but lacking the tools for a grave and materials for a cairn, the river was chosen to bear him away. It is very redolent of a Viking funeral, though, and perhaps this is why it seems so fitting that it should be done in this way.

well,jackass, there are four types of winds, you know: the northern, southern, western, and eastern wind. which one are you talking about?