Eowyn

[Rhiannon]

Eowyn was born in 2995 T.A., the daughter of Eomund of Eastfold (the chief marshal of the Mark), and Theodwyn, the youngest and fairest daughter of Thengel and Morwen of Lossarnach, and beloved sister of Theoden, King of the Mark. Theodwyn and Eomund were married in 2989, and their son Eomer was born in 2991, four years before the birth of his sister Eowyn. When Eowyn was a child of seven years old, Eomund was killed;

At that time Sauron had arisen again, and the shadow of Mordor reached out to Rohan. Orcs began to raid in the eastern regions and slay or steal horses. Others also came down from the Misty Mountains, many being great uruks in the service of Saruman, though it was long before that was suspected. Eomund’s chief charge lay in the east marches; and he was a great lover of horses and hater of Orcs. If new came of a raid he would often ride against them in hot anger, unwarily and with few men. Thus it came about that he was slain in 3002; for he pursued a small band to the borders of the Emyn Muil, and was there surprised by a strong force that lay in wait in the rocks.

Eomund’s quick temper and impulsive nature were clearly passed to his young daughter, as her later actions show. But his early death was a great blow to his wife, and Theodwyn also died (possibly of grief), leaving the young Eomer and Eowyn to the care of their uncle Theoden;

Not long after [Eomund’s death] Theodwyn took sick and died to the great grief of the king. Her children he took into his own house, calling them son and daughter. ...Eomer and Eowyn grew up at Edoras and saw the dark shadow fall on the halls of Theoden. Eomer was like his fathers before him; but Eowyn was slender and tall, with a grace and pride that came to her out of the South from Morwen of Lossarnach, whom the Rohirrim had called Steelsheen.

(The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A)
Little is know of Morwen Steelsheen, Eowyn’s grandmother, or what she did to earn her nickname, but the few references to her indicate that she was a woman of great internal strength and pride, as well as physical beauty, qualities remarked upon repeatedly in the various descriptions of Eowyn.

As Eowyn grew into a young woman, the forces of Sauron were growing in strength. The wizard Saruman had fallen to the Dark Lord’s power, and his influence reached the court of Meduseld in the form of Grima son of Galmod, called ‘Wormtongue’, Theoden’s counselor. Under Saruman’s spells, Theoden fell into an early dotage, relying on Eowyn for care. While still young her brother Eomer was made a Marshal of the Mark, and was given his father’s charge in the east marches. Her cousin and foster-brother, Theodred, like her father, was slain by orcs at the First Battle of the Fords of Isen, a mere week before the arrival of Gandalf at Edoras. The wizard found the king in a sorry state;

At the far end of the house, beyond the hearth and facing north towards the doors, was a dais with three steps; and in the middle of the dais was a great gilded chair. Upon it sat a man so bent with age that he seemed almost a dwarf; but his white hair was long and thick and fell in great braids from beneath a thin golden circlet set upon his brow. In the centre upon his forehead shone a single white diamond. His beard was laid like snow upon his knees; but his eyes still burned with a bright light, glinting as he gazed upon the strangers. Behind his chair stood a woman clad in white.

(the first mention of Eowyn!)
Gandalf freed Theoden from Saruman’s spells, and revealed Wormtongue as a traitor (also uttering one of my favorite lines-- “Therefore be silent, and keep your forked tongue behind your teeth.”) Eowyn, however, was not released from the shadow that had taken her. Still suffering the lingering doubts left by Wormtongue’s influence, Eowyn found herself attracted to the newly arrived Aragorn, who represented to her greatness and freedom away from the weight of her duty and entrapping station.

Eowyn’s Situation: Eowyn had lost both her parents at a young age. She had watched and been able to do nothing as her king and uncle had fallen under the influence of Grima Wormtongue. Her cousin and foster brother had been slain. Her only remaining family, her brother, was rarely present and spent much of his time hunting orcs. Eowyn had no one of equal rank to turn to for help; she could not be seen to falter or show any weakness. She was forced to be strong alone. Because of her sex, she was also forced to be silent. Unlike her brother, she had no outlet for her frustration and terror, but was forced to keep it bottled up inside.
As Gandalf said to Eomer, “My friend, you had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free fields; but she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours. Yet she was doomed to wait upon an old man, whom she loved as a father, and watch him falling into a mean dishonoured dotage; and her part seem to her more ignoble than that of the staff that he leaned on.” (The Return of the King, ‘The Houses of Healing’) Wormtongue’s poison had undermined Eowyn’s sense of self-worth, telling her that she has no value because, in a culture of warriors, she was useful only to ‘wait upon an old man’. Gandalf continued, “...But who knows what she spoke to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?” ...all her life seemed shrinking. Eowyn was being slowly suffocated, and no one was doing anything about it.
Eowyn’s reaction to these stresses was to build an emotional barrier. She withdrew in to herself, becoming outwardly cold and distant. Trapped by her rank and sex in a role to which she was unsuited, constantly exposed to the poison of Wormtongue, and in the absence of anyone in which she can truly confide, Eowyn became hard and bitter. “Slender and tall she was in her white robe girt with silver; but strong she seemed and stern as steel, a daughter of kings. Thus Aragorn for the first time in the full light of day beheld Eowyn, lady of Rohan, and thought her fair, fair and cold, like a morning of pale spring that is not yet come to womanhood." (The Two Towers, ‘The King of the Golden Hall’)

[Rhiannon]

When Aragorn rejected her, refusing to take her with him and reminding her again of her duty, Eowyn resolved to seek honor through the only way left open to her; death in battle. Disguising herself as a young rider of the Mark and taking the name Dernhelm, Eowyn joined the force that set out from Dunharrow for the Pelennor Fields, taking Meriadoc the hobbit with her (apparently through an agreement with Elfhelm, the marshal who commanded the eored in which she rode. Their understanding suggests the possibility that Elfhelm might have had some hand in Eowyn’s military training, though this is not referred to or implied in any other way).
Eowyn’s Desperation: Made to feel worthless, Eowyn responded by desiring greatness, honour, glory; to be valued. To do something of worth. She sought freedom as well, freedom from the restrictions of her rank, freedom from doing what is ‘expected’ of her, from her role as ‘the one who stays behind to tend the house‘. Eowyn felt that she would always be left behind and forgotten. As she said to Aragorn, “All you words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death.” (The Return of the King, ‘The Passing of the Grey Company’). She sought the freedom to for once take control of her own destiny.
Trapped, alone, and made to feel helpless, Eowyn was drawn to Aragorn’s greatness and nobility, seeing in him a symbol of freedom and honour. As Faramir put it, “You desired the love of the Lord Aragorn. Because he was high and puissant, and you wished to have renown and glory and to be lifted far above the mean things that crawl on the earth. And as a great captain may seem to a young soldier he seemed to you admirable.” (The Return of the King, ‘The Houses of Healing’). Eowyn saw Aragorn as a way out, a path to the freedom she so desperately desires. Her love and admiration for him, though real in its own way, was not a truly ‘romantic’ love, as she believed it to be. She did not love Aragorn as a man, but rather she loved what he represented to her: freedom, renown, and glory. (For a closer look at the dynamics of this relationship, see Eowyn's Love: A Lecture)
In the end Eowyn was rejected by what she saw as her last chance, when Aragorn refuses to take her with him to the South. Left behind and abandoned once again, Eowyn could have either submit to her role, her ‘cage’, or she could take matters in to her own hands. She chose the latter. She was not motivated by her unrequited ‘love’ at this point, or by a need to ‘prove herself’; she felt instead that there is no other path left to her. She had this one last chance to do something of worth. She had no hope that her situation would improve. She had stopped caring about life, not because Aragorn didn’t love her, but because he withdrew her last means of ‘escape’, thus serving as a catalyst. Left without hope, Eowyn “...desired to have nothing, save a brave death in battle.” (The Return of the King, ‘The Steward and the King’)

[Rhiannon]

Through her disguise as Dernhelm, Eowyn found herself on the Pelennor Fields, facing one of the single greatest individual opponents of the War of the Ring; The Lord of the Nazgul.

But lo! suddenly in the midst of the glory of the king his golden shield was dimmed. The new morning was blotted from the sky. Dark fell about him. Horses reared and screamed. Men cast from the saddle lay groveling on the ground.
“To me! To me!” cried Theoden. “Up, Eorlingas! Fear no darkness!” But Snowmane wild with terror stood up on high, fighting with the air, and then with a great scream he crashed upon his side: a black dart had pierced him. The king fell beneath him.
The great shadow descended like a falling cloud. And behold! it was a winged creature: if bird, then greater than all other birds, and it was naked, and neither quill nor feather did it bear, and its vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned fingers; and it stank. A creature of an older world maybe it was, whose kind, lingering in forgotten mountains cold beneath the Moon, outstayed their day, and in hideous eyrie bred this last untimely brood, apt to evil. And the Dark Lord took it, and nursed it with fell meats, until it grew beyond the measure of all other things that fly; and he gave it to his servant to be his steed. Down, down it came, and then, folding its fingered webs, it gave a croaking cry, and settled upon the body of Snowmaine, digging in its claws, stopping its long naked neck.
Upon it sat a shape, black-mantled, huge and threatening. A crown of steel he bore, but between rim and robe naught was there to see, save only a deadly gleam of eyes: the Lord of the Nazgul. To the air he had returned, summoning his steed ere the darkness failed, and now he was come again, bringing ruin, turning hope to despair, and victory to death. A great black mace he wielded.
But Theoden was not utterly forsaken. The knights of his house lay slain bout him, or else mastered by the madness of their steeds were borne far away. Yet one stood there still: Dernhelm the young, faithful beyond fear; and he wept, for he had loved his lord as a father. Right through the charge Merry had be borne unharmed behind him, until the Shadow came; and then Windfola had thrown them in his terror, and now ran wild upon the plain. Merry crawled on all fours like a dazed beast, and such a horror was on him that he was blind and sick.
“King’s man! King’s man!” his heart cried within him. “You must stay by him. As a father you shall be to me, you said.” But his will made no answer, and his body shook. He dared not open his eyes or look up.
Then out of the blackness in his mind he thought that he heard Dernhelm speaking; yet now the voice seemed strange, recalling some other voice that he had known.
“Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace!”
A cold voice answered: “Come not between the Nazgul and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in they turn. He will bear thee away tot he houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where they flesh shall be devoured, and they shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye.”
A sword rang as it was drawn. “Do what you will; but I will hinder it, if I may.”
“Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!”
Then Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. “But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Eowyn I am, Eomund’s daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.”
The winged creature screamed at her, but the Ringwraith made no answer, and was silent, as if in sudden doubt. Very amazement for a moment conquered Merry’s fear. He opened his eyes and the blackness was lifted from them. There some paces from him sat the great beast, and all seemed dark about it, and aboce it loomed the Nazgul Lord like a shadow of despair. A little to the left facing them stood she home he had called Dernhelm. But the helm of her secrecy had fallen from her, and her bright hair, released from its bonds, gleamed with pale gold upon her shoulders. Her eyes grey as the sea were hard and fell, and yet tears were on her cheek. A sword was in her hand, and she raised her shield against the horror of her enemy’s eyes.
Eowyn it was, and Dernhelm also. For into Merry’s mind flashed the memory of the face that he saw at the riding from Dunharrow, the face of one that foes seeking death, having no hope. Pity filled his heart and great wonder, and suddenly the slow-kindled courage of his race awoke. He clenched his hand. She should not die, so fair, so desperate! At least she should not die alone, unaided.
The face of their enemy was not turned towards him, but still he hardly dared to move, dreading lest the deadly eyes should fall on him. Slowly, slowly he began to crawl aside; but the Black Captain, in doubt and malice intent upon the woman before him, heeded him no more than a worm in the mud.
Suddenly the great beast beat its hideous wings, and the wind of them was foul. Again it leaped into the air, and then swiftly fell down upon Eowyn, shrieking, striking with beak and claw.
Still she did not blench, child of kings, slender but as a steel-blade, fair yet terrible. A swift stroke she dealt, skilled and deadly. The outstretched head she clove asunder, and the hewn head fell like a stone. Backward she sprang as the huge shape crashed to ruin, vast wings outspread, crumpled on the earth; and with its fall the shadow passed away. A light fell about her, and her hair shone in the sunrise.
Out of the wreck rose the Black Rider, tall and threatening, towering above her. With a cry of hatred that stung the very ears like venom he let fall his mace. Her shield was shivered in many pieces, and her arm was broken; she stumbled to her knees. He bent over her like a cloud, and his eyes glittered; he raised his mace to kill.
But suddenly he too stumbled forward with a cry of bitter pain, and he stroke went wide, driving into the ground. Merry’s sword had stabbed him from behind, shearing through the black mantle, and passing up beneath the hauberk had pierced the sinew behind his mighty knee.
“Eowyn! Eowyn!” cried Merry. Then tottering, struggling up, with her last strength she drove her sword between crown and mantle, as the great shoulders bowed before her. The sword broke sparkling into many shards. The crown rolled away with a clang. Eowyn fell forward upon her fallen foe. But lo! the mantle and hauberk were empty. Shapeless they lay now on the ground, torn and tumbled; and a cry went up into the shuddering air, and faded to a shrill wailing, passing with the wind, a voice bodiless and thin that died, and was swallowed up, and was never heard again in that age of this world.

(The Return of the King, ’The Battle of the Pelennor Fields’)
I apologize for the length of the quote, but no summary could do it justice.

[Rhiannon]

Poisoned by the Black Breath, Eowyn is carried from the field to the Houses of Healing, where the second part of her destiny awaits her. Aragorn lifts from her the spell, but he cannot remove the shadow that haunts her; this is illustrated when she does not answer his call, and only wakes when her brother Eomer calls for her. Instead, Eowyn finds in the gardens of the Houses the man who will complete her troubled spirit; not the Dunadan, but Faramir, Captain of Gondor.
Eowyn’s bravery had brought her honor and great renown, but she was not content--her aim had not been accomplished, and the death she had sought eluded her. Faramir’s clear sight saw all of this, and “it seemed to him that her loveliness amid her grief would pierce his heart. And she looked at him and saw the grave tenderness in his eyes, and yet knew, for she was bred among men of war, that here was one whom no Rider of the Mark would outmatch in battle.”
The friendship between Eowyn and Faramir turned quickly into love--suspiciously quickly, some might think. And yet there is no doubt in my mind, and certainly not in Tolkien’s, as to the true strength and depth of their love. As Tolkien wrote in response to ‘criticsm concerning Faramir & Eowyn’; “In my experience feelings and decisions ripen very quickly (as measured by mere ‘clock-time’, which is actually not justly applicable) in periods of great stress, and especially under the expectation of imminent death. And I do not think that persons of high estate and breeding need all the petty fencing and approaches in matters of ‘love’. This tale does not deal with a period of ‘Courtly Love’ and its pretences; but with a culture more primitive (sc. less corrupt) and nobler.” (Letter 244) Before the return of the captains from the Black Gate, Faramir went to Eowyn (who, in his absence as he took on his duties as Steward, had grown silent and pale again), and declared his love for her;
[quote] “...Eowyn, do you not love me, or will you not?” [Faramir said]
“I wished to be loved by another,” she answered. “But I desire no man’s pity.”
“That I know,” he said. “You desired to have the love of the Lord Aragorn. Because he was high and puissant, and you wished to have renown and glory and to be lifted far above the mean things that crawl on the earth. And as a great captain may to a young soldier he seemed to you admirable. For so he is, a lord among men, the greatest that now is. But when he gave you only understanding and pity, then you desired to have nothing, unless a brave death in battle. Look at me, Eowyn!”
And Eowyn looked at Faramir long and steadily; and Faramir said, “Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart, Eowyn! But I do not offer you my pity. For you are a lady high and valiant and have yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten; and you are a lady beautiful, I deem, beyond even the words of the Elven-tongue to tell. And I love you. Once I pitied your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, were you the blissful Queen of Gondor, still I would love you. Eowyn, do you not love me?”
Then the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her.
“I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,” she said; “and behold! the Shadow has departed!”

Eowyn's Road to Healing: By disguising herself, Eowyn broke free of her `cage', her entrapping role. By taking on the guise of a man, Eowyn freed herself from the constraints of her sex, the duty that says "...you are a woman, and your part is in the house." (The Return of the King, `The Passing of the Grey Company'). By taking on the role of a warrior, Eowyn was taking action, striking out against everything that has kept her trapped.
Eowyn's desperate action, her breaking free, was necessary for her because it made way for healing to take place. Having been already driven to the very edge and drawn back, the wounds on her heart had been cauterized. As Faramir puts it, "...you and I have both passed under the wings of the shadow, and the same hand drew us back." (The Return of the King, `The Steward and the King'). She had already seen the darkness, already been through the fire.
Eowyn's disguise and subsequent valor on the battlefield did not bring her healing, but they did pave the way. Her healing came in the form of Faramir, and his understanding of her heart. When Eowyn found that despite what she had done she was still not content, she struggled with herself, not understanding what it was that she truly wanted. Faramir, who had `clear sight' (The Return of the King, `The Steward and the King`), saw Eowyn truly as she was, as a woman, a person, and an individual, and not defined by her role, station, sex, or situation. As he told her, "Were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, were you the blissful queen of Gondor, still I would love you." (The Return of the King, `The Steward and the King'). Being loved unconditionally took away Eowyn's need to find glory as a way to find worth in herself.

Eowyn married Faramir, Steward of Gondor, who was made by King Elessar the Prince of Ithilien, and was given Emyn Arnen to be his dwelling place. After this point Eowyn and Faramir drop out of the story of Middle-Earth; there is one reference in The History of Middle Earth to their son Elboron, and the prologue of The Lord of the Rings mentions their grandson Barahir. Faramir’s death is recorded as 82 F.A., but no date is given for the shieldmaiden’s death. She was the youngest major character in The Lord of the Rings, being 24 when she slew the Witch King. She is the most dynamic of the only three major female characters, and, after Frodo and Aragorn, is one of the characters to experience the most dramatic change.

Shieldmaiden of Rohan: Who trained Eowyn in weaponry is a mystery not explained--it is possible, even likely, that most women of Rohan received some instruction in such a war-like nation, but the title of ‘shieldmaiden’ suggests something further than mere competence. Its use also suggests that Eowyn is not alone in her military prowess, but the surprise and anguish when she is found on the Field of Pelennor gives the impression that women in battle were rare, even among the Rohirrim.
‘Warrior women’, however, already had a precedent, both in literature and history. The Norse legends of the Valkyries, armoured women were bore fallen warriors field, are familiar to many, while other women of ancient stories are less known, if no less dynamic: Bradamant, a female knight in the service of Charlemagne who appears in the epic poem Orlando Furioso, written by Ludovico Ariosto in 1532, Alfhild the ‘Danish female pirate’, whose saga was written down in the twelfth century by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, Gwendolen and Boadicea, the warrior queens of Britain, Heira the Amazon, Queen Sammuramat of Assyria, and the Morrigan, the Celtic war goddess, are all legends that might have been known to Tolkien, and possibly served as inspirations for the character of Eowyn. There are also more modern examples of female bravery; no less than two hundred forty women are believed to have fought in the American Civil War after disguising themselves as men in order to enlist in both the Union and Confederate armies. (Sources: Orlando Furioso, Ludovico Ariosto; Women Warriors, Marianna Mayer; She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea, Joan Druett, and They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War, DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook)

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