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Child: thanks for the fascinating and eloquent reply, but I must clarify my point a bit in response to yours.
I do not think that the Elves are "uconcerned" with death: quite the reverse. Like you, I find the Elves to be nearly obsessed with death, but this obsession takes the form of denial. Everything they do and are is in defiance of death: they do not die, they live their lives in fear of what they love dying, the wars they fight are to prevent the death of what they want to keep. In this respect I suppose we see Men and Elves in the same way -- each is preoccupied with death, but in different ways.
For a race that is born to immortality, the idea of death must be a foreign thing. It is not a part of their 'natural' functioning, death for Elves is unnatural. Where I think they go wrong, all too often, is in letting their fear and denial of death effect the way they live. The same thing happens with Men. Whereas Men defy death by erecting tombs to the dead, the Elves seem to entomb, even mummify, their lives. The greatest of the Elven realms become like sterile sarcophagi that go on unchanging and static in defiance of natural change, and living. These are beautiful places, but static and 'dead' nonetheless: like the pyramids of Egypt, Lorien is a place that I'd love to visit, but I wouldn't want to stay there forever as to do so is to give up on the process of living.
This is why I cling to the idea of hobbits as synthesising the position of Elves and Men. They accept death into their lives and acknowlege it (as the Elves are not able to do) and commemorate it without it becoming the defining term of their existence (as it does for Men).
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Scribbling scrabbling.
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