Do Elves BURY their dead? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Alfirin · 05-22-2008, 06:01 AM

The answer to why there are so few graves in ME and they all seem to belong to the noble and important is very, very simple, they were the only ones ALLOWED such a privalege. The Concept of a grave as we now now it, that of a spot that a person is interred FOREVER, is a very, very new concept, even in the western world (started around the 18th-19th century, I belive). Prior to that waht happened to most people was a more temporary affair. the Body was buried with a marker of usuallly wood (NOT stone). after a period of time (3-5 years in some areas up to 20 in others) the grave was dug up, and any bones remaining were deposited in mass ossuary (sometimes) or discarded (more often) along with the marker (assuming it had not already rotted away) and the space was re-used for another burial (remember the gravedigger's scene in Hamlet. The ronly people who were allowed such luxuries as a permanent resting place tened to be the upper classes most of whom interred thier dead in family crypts or catacombs which were sometimes but not alaways located under the actual houses the familes lived in. Under the floors of churches was another popular place for the rich to be buried (Westminster Abbey is a good example of this) There are even some very famous chuches which decorated thier interiors with mosaics made from the bones of those buried within thier walls.) In having so few permanet graves Tolkein is just adhering to the historical record.

05-22-2008, 06:01 AM	#13
Alfirin Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 435	On the lack of cemetaries in ME The answer to why there are so few graves in ME and they all seem to belong to the noble and important is very, very simple, they were the only ones ALLOWED such a privalege. The Concept of a grave as we now now it, that of a spot that a person is interred FOREVER, is a very, very new concept, even in the western world (started around the 18th-19th century, I belive). Prior to that waht happened to most people was a more temporary affair. the Body was buried with a marker of usuallly wood (NOT stone). after a period of time (3-5 years in some areas up to 20 in others) the grave was dug up, and any bones remaining were deposited in mass ossuary (sometimes) or discarded (more often) along with the marker (assuming it had not already rotted away) and the space was re-used for another burial (remember the gravedigger's scene in Hamlet. The ronly people who were allowed such luxuries as a permanent resting place tened to be the upper classes most of whom interred thier dead in family crypts or catacombs which were sometimes but not alaways located under the actual houses the familes lived in. Under the floors of churches was another popular place for the rich to be buried (Westminster Abbey is a good example of this) There are even some very famous chuches which decorated thier interiors with mosaics made from the bones of those buried within thier walls.) In having so few permanet graves Tolkein is just adhering to the historical record.