Origins of the Dead Marshes

[HCIsland]

First off, I'm not talking about the Fallen from The Last Alliance but instead as to the origin of Tolkien's concept of the marshes.

I'm a high school teacher and we just returned from a field trip. One of the locations we went to was a sphagnum moss bog where this moss grows across the surface of the water. It is this type of bog that is the source of peat moss that is an industry onto itself in many parts of northern Europe.

These bogs are extremely acidic, and as such no bacteria grows in them. This means that things decompose at an extremely slow rate. They are essentially pickled.

So, what does this have to do with Tolkien? In European bogs, over the years, people digging up peat have unearthed thousands of "bog people". These are dead bodies, thousands of years old, that are mummified by the acidic water and extremely well perserved. I don't know enough about European mythology, but I figure these "bog people" must have worked their way into stories somewhere and I'm wondering if anyone may know about these stories and how they may have influenced Tolkien in what he did, specifically when it comes to the Dead Marshes.

H.C.