It was Miriel, mother of Feanor.

And that was in Aman. And Miriel was a true elf dying of extreme weariness.

LoTR says that Arwen has a grave, and one may assume that her physical remains would decay. But one can believe whatever one wants.

Hey, I'm the newest member! Whoo hoo! Anyways... back to the topic at hand... sorry for the interruption.

The story of Miriel is not comparable to that of Arwen at all.
Her soul simply passed to the halls of Mandos, while her body lay in Lorien (the one in Valinor), which is where all elven souls go when they "die", for example when they are slain in battle.
Contrary to humans elven souls are bound within the confines of ME. The human death is actually conceived of as a apecial priviledge, because it means that their souls can transcend the confines of the material world (i.e. ME).

As stupid as this may sound, what if it was due to some kind of magic? The hill grew over her, or leaves or something. Perhaps the combined magic of Lorien and Arwen (being an Elf still, and close with nature) caused nature to speed up a bit and have the hill/moss/leaves/whatever grow over her.

Yep. That would have been Fëanor's mother- his fëa was basically too strong when he was born, and it killed her.

Ouch.

Arwen's body could just have decayed, and grass/the hill could have grown "over" her in that way. If a corpse is left outside for long enough, then the ground can indeed grow "over" them.

Um, I know that you've sort of gotten away from the Arwen/Luthien comparison, but anyway.

Tolkien states somewhere (I think) that Luthien was the only elf whose fëa actually left the world. That was because she actually went directly to Mandos to make him give her back Beren and traded her immortality for another chance for Beren. Arwen wasn't mortal per say, she died in a similar fashion to Miriel, only of grief, rather than weariness.

And if this is completely off, just ignore me.

Yeah, but Miriel was a full elf, and Arwen was half-elven. She and her brothers had the privilege of choice.
As for Miriel's body not decaying, it didn't because Este's maidens tended it.
Says so in Silm [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

i heard that she just plodded(lovely word) off to Lorien and died. bit silly really, if u think about it

It seems a bit unfair, doesn't it, if Arwen decays and decomposes, but Aragorn back in Gondor is not.

That doesn't mean that she wouldn't, though.

By pointing out 'living' -are you suggesting that the ghost of Aragorn may have come back to Cerin Amroth to bury Arwen?
Seriously, though, maybe his spirit did come back to ease her final passing. But this is wild and flippant speculation (though it could make a good fan fic topic) [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
Still, apart from this, something always intrigued me about that linecame there never again as living man. . Of course, it could be just Tolkien's rather pretentious style, but I have the impression that something is being hinted at.

Well, you never know. Perhaps at Arwen's last moment, the shade of Aragorn appeared by her side, and sort of led her to the Halls of Men (an arbitrary name for the place where Men go when they die). Perhaps Tolkien would have wanted it that way, we'll never know. It's another one of those things that are comparable to the Witch-king "prophecy." On one hand, it could have been a moment of inspiration for Tolkien, or, he could have gotten a kick out of watching all of us sweat over little things like that. You take your pick.

I sometimes wonder what would happen if Tolkien got a chance to post something on this board. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
But I digress, sorry.