Do Elves BURY their dead?

[Gwathagor]

Maybe the elves stick their dead in trees like some of the Native Americans...that would be funny. And fairly appropriate, too.

[Maedhros_the_Tall]

I'm not sure how relevant it is, as its a tenuous link at best, but I noticed when re-reading 'Unfinished tales' today, in 'Tuor and his coming to Gondolin', it says the following;

"Now Tuor came to the ruins of a lost road, and he passed amid green mounds and leaning stones....." (upon his approach to Vinyamar)

As I said, its tenuous as best, but could these 'green mounds' be burial mounds perhaps? Or just mere grassy knolls!

[Girl in the Grass]

If Elves did just "turn to dust" when they died, it seems that depending on the amount of time it took for them to...dissolve (for lack of a better word) the Elves would have a sort of memorial service, and then let the dust be scattered by the wind. It sounds appropriate to me, and accounts for the apparent lacking of burial mounds. If a body was just going to crumble into dust there would be no need for burial, as animals wouldn't be able to desecrate the remains and there would be no chance of disease from rotting flesh. Of course this is just pure opinion.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Originally Posted by Girl in the Grass

If Elves did just "turn to dust" when they died, it seems that depending on the amount of time it took for them to...dissolve (for lack of a better word) the Elves would have a sort of memorial service, and then let the dust be scattered by the wind. It sounds appropriate to me, and accounts for the apparent lacking of burial mounds. If a body was just going to crumble into dust there would be no need for burial, as animals wouldn't be able to desecrate the remains and there would be no chance of disease from rotting flesh. Of course this is just pure opinion.

I do agree that it would be an exelent explanation to why there is so few elven graves to be found, but I think one has to take a broader view. This does not explain why there is relatively few human graves mentioned and while this is not part of the question, it might very well be part of the answer.

As I stated before there seems to be a clear tendency to Tolkien leaving burial rituals and such, exept for the ones for the nobility. . .which ofcourse is important for the stories.

Another thing is that if the elves did just turn to dust then there would be no reason at all to save Fingolfins body and give it a burrial.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

On the Uruk-hai in Rohan:

Interesting that Tolkien usually associates cremation with 'carrion': Ugluk's band, the Witch-king's beast (whereas Snowmane was buried) and so on: the 'burned Dwarves' of Azanulbizar were considered in a way to have made a second sacrifice after death, so sorrowful were the survivors at being forced to take that option.

[alatar]

In Frank Herbert's Dune books, a organization of superwomen (the Bene Gesserit) bury their dead, when possible, under fruit trees. These women see the bodies of their Sisters as just so much dead organic matter as the fallen can live as memories in live Sisters, so no one is ever 'missed.' A body's a body, but the souls live on or something.

The more I thought on this, the more strange it sounded. Frank Herbert, being an ecologist, through his work had suggested it, and so it might not be just some fantasy writings. I presume that as these superwomen had the ability to protect themselves from diseases that the practice of placing dead bodies under food sources may be more plausible.

Would this then be possible with the elves, as they too would not carry diseases that could be retained in the food supply? Maybe that's why their food taste so good...

[Eönwë]

Alatar, are you suggesting that elves feed their trees off'f the nutrients of dead people?