While crossing the Misty Mountains via Redhorn Pass, CelebrÃan was captured by orcs. She was held for some time, tortured and poisoned. Elrond and company eventually rescued her, but she was so traumatized that after a year she left Middle Earth. Elrond would not see her again for some 500 years.
That doesn't sound so dramatic, IMO. I wonder if there's a generational component there too...? Maybe in Tolkien's time, explicit gore and violence were less common. Then since modern video games and TV shows upped the ante, maybe RR Martin had to be more explicit to create the same emotional effect that Tolkien's subtle hinting used to have on his audience? I dunno.
Certainly Martin was writing for a different audience. I don't know that Tolkien's descriptions would have been read as 'subtle' by his audience at the time he wrote it. Generational implications come and go. What might sound horrific or lascivious in one era or culture would be tame to another.