Concerning Éowyn

[wiseheart]

Okay, made it a separate entry as it wouldn't match the previous one.

I've been very annoyed for quite some time about how a lot of so-called serious LOTR-fans and/or authors are treating Éowyn. So I decided to turn a very early HA-entry of mine into a full-fledged essay. It probably won't be a very nice one. But I've been an Éowyn admirer ever since I read The Books for the first time, back in the mid 1970s, and I can't watch any longer what is being done to her.

Yes, I know she is a fictional character. But the fact that it's mostly women who are trying to make her look bad, just because she dared to make her own decisions and act outside the role expected from her is a bit too close to Real Life for my comfort.

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yep, I cannot agree more. But - as I will discuss it at some length in my essay - the Rohirrim were not the US Marines, which some people seem to forget. They lived by a very different warrior code, accodring to which every free-born individual could choose to go to battle.

Éowyn was a trained warrior. It was her frigging right to follow the King when she wanted, especially as she had already fulfilled her duty in Dunharrow. Elfhelm, who was the marshal of Edoras - i.e. the highest warlord after the King and Éomer at that time - saw absolutely nothing wrong with it. Nor seemed any of the Rohirrim to have any problem with it. Éomer was only mad because he thought he had lost his sister, not because she went to battle.

It's a sad thing that Tolkien, an old-fashioned man and very conservative Catholic (and trust me, I know of first-hand experience how little women count according to Catholic teachings) was more understanding towards Éowyn's motivation than women of the 21st century, after everthing feminism had fought to make possible for them.