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Old 05-27-2008, 07:56 PM   #26
Ibrîniðilpathânezel
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
 
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Back on the Helcaraxe
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Ibrîniðilpathânezel is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Ibrîniðilpathânezel is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
It has always seemed to me that the Elves tend to bury their dead near the spot where they fell (if possible), and do not have the mortal custom of erecting memorials on the site. Perhaps this is because of the Elves' seemingly greater connection to the natural world, perhaps it's because of their knowledge that they may be reincarnated, thus making the body less important than the spirit. I'm currently on vacation, so I don't have any of my books with me (and thus I'm taking this from memory), but I think that the difference between Elves and Men concerning the raising of memorials to the dead is made rather clear by Faramir when he tells Frodo and Sam of Gondor and its people, how they have fallen into the habit of constructing more lavish houses for the dead than for the living, dwelling too much upon past glories. This may be an "affliction," if you will, of living in mortal lands, where all things eventually die or fade. The Elvish "memorials" I can recall are those for places which their builders believed they would not see again because of the Ban: Turgon's Gondolin (fashioned after Tirion) and Galadriel's Lothlorien (fashioned, if not after Lorien in Valinor, then after the West itself, where the trees and grass did not fade and die).

Hmm, I'm rambling. Too much fresh air and sunshine.
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