Éowyn

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Character from Tolkien's Legendarium Name Éowyn Other names Dernhelm Titles Lady of Rohan Lady of the Shield-arm White Lady of Rohan Lady of Ithilien Lady of Emyn Arnen Race Men Culture Rohirrim Date of birth T.A. 2995 Date of death F.A.? Book(s) The Two Towers The Return of the King

Éowyn (T.A. 2995 – F.A. ?), a shieldmaiden of Rohan, is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy universe of Middle-earth who appears in his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings. She is also known as the Lady of the Shield-arm, White Lady of Rohan, and is later titled Lady of Ithilien, also known as Lady of Emyn Arnen. Although she never carries the title of a princess, she is sister to a Rohan king and wife to a Gondorian prince. Éowyn is described to be very beautiful; she was tall, slim, and graceful, with golden hair. In temperament she was idealistic, spirited, brave, high-minded, and lonely.

Contents 1 History 2 Portrayal in adaptations 3 Trivia 4 See also 5 External link

[edit] History

In The Lord of the Rings Éowyn, Lady of Rohan, a daughter of the House of Eorl and the niece of King Théoden of Rohan, is introduced in Meduseld, the king's hall at Edoras. She was the daughter of Théodwyn (sister to Théoden) and Éomund, and the sister of Éomer. Frustrated by unrequited love for Aragorn and longing for the glory of battle, she disguised herself as a man, and under the alias of Dernhelm, traveled with the Riders of Rohan to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields outside the White City of Minas Tirith in Gondor, carrying with her Merry, who was also ordered to remain. Théoden in fact named her as the ruler of Rohan in his and Éomer's absence when they went to attack the invading forces at Minas Tirith if they failed during the battle, when the Doorward Háma recommended that "The House of Eorl" rule (Théoden first only thought of male members), said that he and Éomer are the last of the House, but Háma points out Éowyn, saying of her:

"There is Éowyn, daughter of Éomund, his sister. She is fearless and high-hearted. All love her. Let her be as lord to the Eorlingas, while we are gone." —Háma

During the battle of the Pelennor Fields, she fought by King Théoden; when he was injured by the Witch-king of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgûl, she and Merry scrambled to help him. Confronting the Witch-king, who boasted that "no living man may hinder me," she removed her helmet, exposing her long blond hair and declaring,

"No living man am I! You look upon a woman."

Just as MacDuff disconcerted Macbeth by revealing he was not "of woman born", Éowyn found the loophole in the 1,000-year-old prophecy by the Elf-lord Glorfindel, foretelling that the Witch-king would not be slain by a man.

Éowyn slew the Witch-king after Merry stabbed him behind the knee. Strictly speaking, Merry is also "no man," being a Hobbit. However, the stab behind the knee likely would not have been fatal, even if it did break the bonds that "bent his unseen sinews to his will", thanks to the magic of Merry's barrow-blade. The consensus is that Merry's stab made the Witch-King vulnerable while Eowyn's slash actually resulted in death. She was granted the title "Lady of the Shield-arm" after the Battle in recognition of her triumph over the Witch-king.

Éowyn was severely injured in this fight, and because of the poisonous effect of the Black Breath of the Nazgûl and her hopeless love for Aragorn, she faced near-certain death and was brought up to the Houses of Healing. However, she was treated in time by Aragorn, to whom she had earlier been strongly attracted, during his brief rest in Minas Tirith. Since she did not yet recover completely, she could not join Aragorn's army on its way to Mordor for the last confront with the enemy's army. However, while recuperating in the Houses of Healing, she met Faramir, with whom she fell in love.

After the demise of Sauron, the happily-wedded couple settled in Ithilien, of which Faramir was made the ruling Prince by King Aragorn. Éowyn was known as the Lady of Ithilien. Éowyn's brother Éomer became the King of Rohan. Faramir and Éowyn had at least one son (likely Elboron), and their grandson was Barahir, who wrote The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen in the Fourth Age. The date of Eowyn's death is nowhere recorded.

[edit] Portrayal in adaptations

The voice of Éowyn was provided by Nellie Bellflower in the 1980 Rankin/Bass animated version of The Return of the King, and by Elin Jenkins in BBC Radio's 1981 serialisation.

Éowyn also appears briefly in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 adaptation but does not have any dialogue.

In Peter Jackson's films The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003), Éowyn is played by Miranda Otto. She was apparently promised to Gríma by Saruman in payment for being the wizard's spy in the royal court (as in the book). In the extended edition of The Two Towers, Éowyn is shown discovering, to her astonishment, that Aragorn is a long-lived Dúnadan.

In the original theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Éowyn's injuries after fighting the Witch-king are less severe than in the novel: she is conscious but hurt, as opposed to unconscious. In scenes added in the Extended Edition of the film, she is near death: her brother finds her and grieves, and later we see her being healed by Aragorn.

While she does disguise herself in the film to ride into battle, she never takes on the name "Dernhelm," and the audience is always aware of her true identity. The production team stated that while in a book it was easy to disguise Eowyn's identity, in the medium of cinema the audience could visually tell that it was her and it would have strained the credibility of the scenes to try to make it a secret, as well as make Merry look foolish.

[edit] Trivia

• Éowyn means "horse lover" or "friend of horses" in Anglo-Saxon (the language Tolkien used to represent Rohirric). Eoh- meaning "horse" and -wyn meaning "joy". A corresponding Greek name would be Philippa.
• The first syllable of Lady Éowyn's name sounds like "eh-ah," with the "ah" just barely pronounced. As in Scandinavian, the y in the second syllable is the same sound as the German letter ü or the French u. The actors in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy consistently pronounce her name as well as the names of Éomer and Théoden in a manner inconsistent with most reconstructions of Old English pronunciation.

[edit] See also

• Shieldmaiden
• House of Eorl

[edit] External link

• Eowyn at The Thain's Book