Do Elves BURY their dead?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Oh, another reference- in the description of the Dead Marshes, it is said that the expanding swamp crept over the *graves* from the Battle of the Morannon- and clearly those interred included Elves.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Oh, another reference- in the description of the Dead Marshes, it is said that the expanding swamp crept over the *graves* from the Battle of the Morannon- and clearly those interred included Elves.

Were the fallen 'buried' intentionally, or did that just happen to be their fate?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I think the passage just says 'graves'- but ordinarily a grave is something dug intentionally, or in any event not the same as just leaving the lyin' around. Since the Alliance won, I can't imagine them doing that with the fallen, anyway.

[alatar]

What I meant was 'were some of these fallen buried by the war and not by their comrades?' Did some blast or quake or other calamity entomb these fallen so that their bodies ended up in the defile but not intentionally?

[Maedhros_the_Tall]

Originally Posted by alatar

What I meant was 'were some of these fallen buried by the war and not by their comrades?' Did some blast or quake or other calamity entomb these fallen so that their bodies ended up in the defile but not intentionally?

Yeah, I imagine thats what it alludes to, rather then them having been buried in the dead marshes. Its similar to the beginning of the Bragollach in the Silmarillion, when the Ard-galen becomes the Anfauglith when it says "many charred bones had their roofless grave there, as many of the Noldor perished in that burning". Their graves were where they fell, and I imagine that the Dead Marshes are a similar situation.