[littlemanpoet]

Perhaps your statement about the ragged split in our nature and our inability to accept who we are does not apply equally to all human beings. Perhaps this is something that's more prone to strike so-called modern "educated" men and women, those who feel they've gone beyond man's "more primitive" side and rejected anything that can't be proven rationally.

Child, I would say that you are right that the ailment does not affect all humans. I think that your following surmise is a little too narrow. It has to do with language. I refer you to my first post in the Mythic Unities thread.

Higher learning may be an ingredient in the ailment, but not the only one. I have a test for you to apply to people you know, including your 94 year old mother and her community: listen to their working vocubulary. How much of what is said derives from the Anglo-Saxon heart of English or your community's ethnic speech? How much is borrowed in from Latin? Greek? French? The more polysyllabic borrowed-in words in a person's vocabulary, the more that person is likely to suffer from the ailment.

What I find most interesting is that Tolkien, thoroughly educated in the Classics (he could speak fluent Latin and Greek), never lost the capacity for Hobbitness. I have an idea why. Most English speakers who use much Latin, Greek, and French borrowed words do so in ignorance of etymology. By contrast, Tolkien not only knew the etymologies of the words he used, he knew each language he studied to its bones: grammar, etymologies, cognates, etc. In essence, he could speak Latin, Greek, Gothic, Nordic, Anglo-Saxon, West Midland, etc., as a native speaker. That's my guess, anyway. So he could be hobbit in any language he chose!

Given how out of touch Elves are with the natural cycle, what do we make of their desire to live in the earth?

Fordim, I must disagree with your "given". Perhaps "out of touch" is an unfortunate way to express your thought? My understanding of Elves is that they are both fëar and animal at once (I've already metioned this in the Mythic Unities thread). Rather than being out of touch, Elves are as close to nature as any created being in Arda - with the exception of their long lives. This very closeness is cause for their sorrow, since everything else in Arda, dies. Thus they embalm, perserving that which is supposed to die, by means of their art. Thus, Lorien with the leaves remaining in the trees until the next buds are ready to sprout.

As for living underground, I think that there are two aspects to it. First, Elves are close to nature, as our Dwarves and Hobbits. Men are also, except for those who have advanced cultures. It is the advanced cultures of Men in which the Towers have been erected and the obsession with death has been seen in elaborate tombs. In fact, it is only Men who have had contact with deathless Elves, who become obsessed with death. For all other free races, death is a part of life.

Second, Tolkien the historian understood that abodes built above ground is a relatively recent development in human culture, really in only the last five thousand years or so. Even then, most humans continued to live in abodes that were closely connected to the earth, drawn from the earth. Stone structures (though drawn from the earth) represent a departure from that humble way of life known outside human cities.

So I think that your notion of the hobbits' holes as their tombs is perhaps stretching the analogy a bit. Death as a part of life, yes, but I think it would be more apt, considering Tolkien's Elves as well as human history, to understand hobbit holes and underground palaces as the abodes of living beings still close to the earth.

I also like the metaphor of genealogies as "tombs on paper". Good thought!

So if we still want to chase after those analogies, I see neither a "balance" nor a "teeter totter". Rather, I see each race progressing along their own paths depending upon their history. Elves embalmed in order to preserve the nature they were so close to. Dwarves, Hobbits, and Men remained close to the earth, except for those Men who were confronted by, and befriended, deathless and culturally advanced Elves; these alone became obsessed with death.

What about Rohan, then? Perhaps their contact with the Descendants of Numenor is akin to the Men who had contact with Elves. On the other hand, burial mounds have a long tradition according to European archaeological history, so what about the Rohirrim and the proximity of the kings' mounds to Edoras? It occurs to me that these were the mounds of the kings. We have no record of other mounds in Rohan, except those raised after battles. I still think this is an example of "death as a part of life".

Which is precisely why it's so fascinating to me that there were no burial grounds mentioned in the Shire!

[Tolkien] must have had a good reason for depicting Merry and Pippin's burial as being so separate from their wives and the Shire as a whole.

I think this points to two things. First, the significance of the Fellowship of the Ring. Second, Pippin and Merry swore oaths of fealty; not as land holders under kings (as in feudal times) but as "men" bound to their liege, as in the old Germanic times before feudalism. Thus Pippin became of Gondor, and Merry of Rohan. They were adopted into new kingdoms, as it were. To be buried with their lords was significant.

Lalwendë's reference to Barrows put me in mind of Frodo facing the barrow wight, and how alien the experience was. This illustrates how unlike tombs hobbit holes were.