Arwen's Grave Choice

[Son of Númenor]

Didn't Turin come across his sister lying on Morwen's burial mound (sorry, no book to hand either)? Or did the mound simply mark the spot where she died?

I believe he did, as well as the burial mound of Finduilas. On one or both of them (I haven't got the Sil with me either, so I could not tell you which one or if it was both), there were markings commemorating the life of the buried.

Good point about ancestor worship, Mr. Saucepan Man. I agree that Elvish immortality would not necessitate the marked, ritualistic burial of a deceased Elf, but I doubt that they were cremated; it does not seem a particularly Elvish practice in nature. I think it is possible that Elves could be laid to rest in the fashion of the Kings of Gondor, but that perhaps their hroar 'fade' over time until they are no longer detectable to anyone living in mortal lands. This is merely an unsubstantiated suggestion, but it seems somewhat in line with Tolkien's beliefs about Elves.

[Bêthberry]

*coughs* Barrow Downs *coughs*

Tomb rifles the barrow for the knives made by the Men of Westernesse, to give to the hobbits, and he also takes some kind of token or piece of jewellry for Goldberry, saying,

Here is a pretty toy for Tom and his lady! Fair was she who long ago wore this on her shoulder. Goldberry shall wear it now, and we will not forget her.

Of course, the barrow could be a place to stash treasures and not necessarily the repose of a person's body with all her earthly effects.

"Mum" still hasn't handed that down to me yet.

[mark12_30]

The Barrow Downs occurred to me, but I didn't recall any feminine mention of burial. ...getting hazy... time I reread the trilogy.

There was the brooch, but there were all sorts of treasures there; and I thought they were sort of gathered by the wights...? Sounds silly now that I type it out. I guess I thought of the Wights as sort of like Dragons, resting on a hoard...

[Child of the 7th Age]

Of course, there's no reference (as far as I am aware) to Hobbit burial sites either (save that Merry and Pippin were, I think, buried alongside King Elessar).

On Hobbit burial, see "The Scouring of the Shire".

Nineteen hobbits were killed and some thirty were wounded. The dead ruffians were laden on waggons and hauled off to an old sand-pit nearby and there buried: in the Battle Pit, as it was afterwards called. The fallen hobbits were laid together in a grave on the hill-side, where later a great stone was set up with a garden about it...

This is said so matter-of-fact that it suggests to me that hobbits routinely buried their dead, and perhaps set up some some sort of a remembrance.

[Guinevere]

Come to that, what do you *do* with a dead elf? Aside from leaving them simmering in the dead marshes, I can't recall any elven gravesites.

I recall four elven graves from the Silmarillion:

Finrod Felagund was buried by Beren and Luthien:

And they buried the body of Felagund upon the hill-top of his own isle, and it was clean again; and the 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 destroying seas. But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.

Beleg is buried by Gwindor and Turin:

together they laid Beleg in a shallow grave, and placed beside him Belthronding his great bow

The unhappy Finduilas was buried by the woodmen of Brethil:

They laid her in a mound near that place, and named it Haud-en-Elleth, the Mound of the Elf-maid.

And that's the place where Túrin later finds Nienor/Niniel. (Húrin finds Morwen at Túrin's grave)

After the fall of Gondolin, Glorfindel defended the fugitives against a Balrog on a high pass and was killed

Then Thorondor bore up Glorfindel's body out of the abyss , and they buried him in a mound of stones beside the pass; and a green turf came there, and yellow flowers bloomed upon it amid the barrenness of stone, until the world was changed.

All these Elven-graves are just green mounds, without any names on them.
Since Elves are only killed in battle or fight, they are usually buried where they die, and the survivors who bury them have not much time. Also, I agree with Saucepan-Man that Elves probably wouldn't feel the need for any memorial like tombstones, since they expected their Fëa to go to Mandos' Halls and be reincarnated eventually.

It strikes me that the descriptions of the graves of Finrod and of Glorfindel are very similar to the one of Arwen's grave. Don't you think so too?