Sunday Scriberies by Elleth

Elvish Physical Death

Written for the question:

Have you written about what happens to elves if they die? (their physical remains, I mean.) I've been reading LOTR since I was a kid, but The Silmarillion, etc, weren't published til I was much older so I have not read them as often. I thought I remembered reading in the Silmarillion or the Histories that the bodies of Elves would sort of dissipate and blow away but lately I've been thinking about poor Celebrimbor, whose body was used as a banner by Sauron.

It is widely known in fannish circles that Tolkien imagined his Elves and Men to possess fëa and hröa, spirit/soul and body, and it follows that their life required a close conjunction and interdependence of both. However, one of the chief differences between Elves and Men was the nature of that interdependence: Contrary to Men, whose spirits were largely ruled by their bodies, elvish fëar were able to exercise voluntary control over their bodies far more easily, which explains part of the resilience of the Elves, allowing them to survive trials like the crossing of the Helcaraxë or Maedhros' torture on Thangorodrim, but their quicker spiritual maturation also allowed Elf-children to talk, walk and even dance around one year of age, protected them against wounds that would kill a Man, and might also in part be responsible for the ease of elvish ósanwë-kenta, mind-speech. On the other hand, the strong dependence of the elvish body on the spirit also allowed phenomena like fading, which was the eventual fate of all Elves who did not depart for Aman after their prime; their spirits would consume their bodies and become truly 'immortal' within Arda insofar that, lacking a body, they could not be killed.

However, especially in the period documented in the Silmarillion, from the Awakening of the Elves to the Third Age, they had not yet achieved that state, possessed bodies, and thus could be killed, that is that the body would be hurt in a degree that no longer made it pleasant to inhabit, and the fëa would depart:

If then the hröa be destroyed, or so hurt that it ceases to have health, sooner or later it 'dies'. That is: it becomes painful for the fëa to dwell in it, being neither a help to life and will nor a delight to use, so that the fëa departs from it, and its function being at an end its coherence is unloosed, and it returns again to the general orma [substance] of Arda. (Laws and Customs of the Eldar, some linguistic notes redacted)

Despite the frequency of elvish death in the Silmarillion – all but a handful of the Elves introduced in the book die – there is surprisingly little information about their physical remains. What is certain was that they did not immediately dissipate: Finwë's body was discovered by Fëanor's sons after Morgoth had killed him, Turgon built a cairn for Fingolfin, as did the survivors of Gondolin for Glorfindel, and Finduilas, similarly, was laid in a burial mound by the Men of Brethil. Finrod and Beleg were buried, and while it is uncertain what happened to Thingol eventually, we know that he was laid in state for a while, and Melian kept vigil over him. All this implies some funerary custom(s) that imply the body persisted for at least a while. For the Noldor in Exile and other Elves who had not departed to Aman, death was as permanent a separation as it was for Men, unless they themselves died (their loved ones, even when re-embodied, would usually remain in Aman), so a parting ceremony seems in order, quite aside from questions of general hygiene. Another hint in that direction is Morgoth ordering the piling-up of all the dead Elves and Men after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the so-called Hill of the Slain or Haudh-en-Ndengin. Likely Fingon, after his death in that battle, eventually came to rest there. Celebrimbor was already mentioned (although if I were to indulge in speculation here, I might consider the Ring as a preserving influence of sorts, considering the physical endurance it granted to Gollum and Bilbo, and Sauron's necromantic powers might likewise trend in the same direction).

There are, however, two Elves who do not quite fit the bill: Fëanor, in all ways exceptional, died without having a tomb or burial. He had been named Spirit of Fire by his mother, and apparently Tolkien intended for the reader to take that literally:

The he died; but he had neither burial nor tomb, for so fiery was his spirit that as it sped his body fell to to ash, and was borne away like smoke; and his likeness has never again appeared in Arda, neither has his spirit left the halls of Mandos. (Of the Return of the Noldor)

 This probably is the incident that led to the question in the first place, I'd assume, since it fits the idea of quick dissipation and scattering in the wind.

 Míriel, the mother of Fëanor, is another unusual case. Her physical and spiritual exhaustion after Fëanor's birth made her wish to lay down her life in order to rest, which she did despite the attempts to heal her. She passed to Mandos and her body remained in the gardens of Lórien, where, instead of decaying, it was tended to and thus preserved (likely the same was true for Lúthien's body when she died to follow Beren to Mandos; it is described as lying unwithering for a while). When she is later permitted to exchange places with Finwë in Mandos and return to life, she is described as taking up her body again and waking like someone who returns from sleep, but this is explained, rather, as a natural process being detained rather than the ordinary fate of an elvish body. This piece of information (from the Laws and Customs of the Eldar) is later contradicted in another version of the text; in the Shibboleth of Fëanor Míriel's body is threatened to "swiftly wither and pass away, and the Valar will not restore it" as per the decree of the Valar when Míriel refuses life and allows Finwë's remarriage with Indis. It is not described (though implied) whether her body actually does fade, as the treatise continues to consider linguistic questions.

In general, however, likely based around the preamble of the physical and spiritual connection of the Elves, it is true that Tolkien did envision elvish corpses to disintegrate more swiftly than human or dwarvish ones. As this was part of Tolkien's Last Writings, it must be considered as final and evolved a version of the story as we are likely to have. Unfortunately it is treated in a footnote only: The flesh of the Dwarves is reported to have been far slower to decay or become corrupted than that of Men. (Elvish bodies robbed of their spirit quickly disintegrated and vanished.) Where that leaves the rest of the legendarium is hard to answer, but considering that Tolkien's world was in a constant state of rewriting and reimagining, the usual caveats about 'canonicity' apply.

Chapter End Notes

Sources:

The Silmarillion

The History of Middle-earth: Morgoth's Ring: Laws and Customs among the Eldar

The History of Middle-earth: The Peoples of Middle-earth: The Shibboleth of Fëanor

The History of Middle-earth: Last Writings (Footnote 24)

Michael Martinez: Did Elves Fear Death at All?

Valarguild: Death, Reincarnation, Fading (lists additional earlier concepts)