I just now ran across this thread, and after reading the first few posts something occurred to me. The majority of the posts since then have been fascinating but slightly above me, at least at the moment... So please forgive me for using my dos pesetas to drag this back to the top!
Quote:
One thing that ain't in the Shire and ought to be is grave yards. There are hobbit holes, lanes, gardens, a museum even, and of course lots of inns; there are mills and towers and trees and party fields and pipeweed; but no grave yards.
....What's going on then? Is Tolkien being unrealistic? Are there truly no cemeteries in the Shire? That can't be, because we have deaths listed in the family trees of Appendix C. So obviously there are graveyards in the Shire - we just never come across one.
Why not?
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Tolkien modeled the Shire after the English countryside of his childhood, correct? Well, my understanding, from a variety of well-known English authors, is that English graveyards aren't plunked down in random places next to a discreetly harmonious funeral home, as they are here. By and large, they are adjoining the village church. In fact, I don't recollect even reading the term "graveyard"; "churchyard" appears the preferred term.
Set aside what Tolkien may - or may not - have intended about hobbit, human, and Elf natures. To me, the near lack of organized religion in Middle-Earth cannot be an accident. So how
would he work in a graveyard, if there was no church? As it stands, the Shire is a tolerable reflection of the countryside. There's no hole in the landscape without a church; subconsciously filled in or not, it's up to the reader. But what if he included information on hobbit burial customs, while keeping religion out of the picture? For me, that would be jarring my picture of the Shire. A graveyard without a church? How can that be England?
I don't think I'm expressing my thoughts well at all. I'm hampered, of course, by knowing absolutely nothing of the English countryside first-hand.
But I do believe this is an aspect that was overlooked in the earlier discussions. Just imagine a painting of the countryside (even in America - I've got one in mind); then take out the church on the hill, but leave the graveyard. Now,
that would jar me. Without the context of organized religion, I submit that an English graveyard would be surreal in the Shire.
Humbly,
Nuranar