Over my dead (gorgeous) body.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

I was pondering a location change for quite a while, as Meneltarma had absolutely no connection to my “son of Finrod” personality. So I was thinking of “Tol Sirion, grieving over my father's grave.” Then, out of the blue, I wondered: How in bloody blazes did someone's corpse make that place inviolable.

Then the wondering expanded to all the graves, tombs, and cairns I have known. So now, I have gathered a list of the most exciting ( ) places in Middle-earth, with some of the things I know about them, and more of my questions. In chronological order:

~Fingolfin's cairn in Echoriath.

No Orc dared ever after to pass over the mount of Fingolfin, or draw nigh his tomb, until the doom of Gondolin was come and treachery was born among his kin.

TS 18

This protection may be construed as coincidence, considering before Maeglin's treachery nobody would be wonky enough to go in that area.

~Finrod's grave in Tol Sirion.

[T]he green grave of Finrod Finarfin's son, fairest of all the princes of the Elves, remained inviolate, until the land was changed and broken, and foundered under the destroying sea.

TS 19

Here begins the wondering for me. After Nirnaeth why did Morgoth not take Tol Sirion?

a. He no longer needs to command the Pass of Sirion (possible, but slightly unlikely).

b. Some power really is protecting Tol Sirion from evil. The isle was made inviolably clean (as the quoted passage said) by said power. This is perhaps opposite of Glaurung’s defilement of Helevorn and Ivrin. But what power did it? Was it really Felagund’s grave? How?

~Haudh-en-Ndengin.

But grass came [in Haudh-en-Ndengin] and grew again long and green upon that hill, alone in all the desert that Morgoth made; and no creature of Morgoth trod thereafter upon the earth beneath which the swords of the Eldar and Edain crumbled into rust.

TS 20

Another instance of a place made inviolably clean, or the bane-spells on the Noldorin swords diffusing through the soil?

~Haudh-en-Elleth.

[Túrin] could not endure that the Orcs should come to the crossings of Teiglin or draw nigh to Haudh-en-Elleth [where Finduilas, daughter of Orodreth, was laid], and he made that a place of dread for them, so that they shunned it.

TS 21

Duh. Túrin protected this one.

~Elendil’s Tomb at Amon Anwar.

[A]s Isildur had prayed [Elendil’s tomb] was in the keeping of the Valar; for though the woods might grow tangled and be avoided by men because of the silence, so that the upward path was lost, still when the way was reopened the hallow was found unweathered and unprofaned, ever-green and at peace under the sky . . .

UT III 2

In the keeping of the Valar . . . perhaps Yavanna sent some of her servants there, or went there herself, reminiscent of Ulmo’s care for many places in Beleriand.

~Haudh in Gwanur.

The Riders buried [Folcred and Fastred, sons of Folcwine] after the fashion of their people, and they were laid in one mound, for they were twin brothers. Long it stood, Haudh in Gwanur, high upon the shores of the [River Poros], and the enemies of Gondor feared to pass it.

LR Appendix A I iv

Duh. Who wants to be reminded of their defeat?

~Théodred’s mound in the Fords of Isen.

It is told that [Grimbold] set up on stakes all about the eyot the heads of the axemen that had been slain there, but above the hasty mound of Théodred in the middle was set his banner. “That will be defence enough,” he said.

UT III 5, footnote 8

Psy-ops, obviously. Who wouldn’t be at least a bit scared of the heads of your comrades on stakes? What they lack is a good Vlad the Impaler.

But did it work well? Not exactly.

~*~

If it seems to you that I discount some of the quotes’ obvious meanings, it’s because I have no idea how someone's body could protect a place, and I’m thinking of alternate ideas why the bad guys didn’t want to be near that place.

There may be others that I have forgotten, but they may not be relevant to the discussion anyway. Of course, I could be wrong.