Éowyn

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"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

Éowyn (T.A. 2995 – ?), the Shield-maiden of Rohan, is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy universe of Middle-earth. 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 the sister of a Rohan king and the wife of a Númenórean prince. Éowyn was very beautiful; she was tall, slim, and graceful, with golden hair. In temperament she was idealistic, spirited, brave, high-minded, and lonely.

1 Biography
2 Portrayal in adaptations
3 Trivia
4 References
5 See also
6 External Link

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Biography

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Éowyn, Lady of Rohan, a daughter of the House of Eorl and the niece of King Théoden of Rohan, is introduced in his palace in Meduseld 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 Pelennor Field outside the White City of Minas Tirith in Gondor, carrying with her Merry, who was also ordered to remain. Théoden in fact names her as the ruler of Rohan in his and Éomer's absence when they go to attack Isengard if they fail during the battle, when the Doorward Háma recommends 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, who is "fearless" and "all love her").

During the battle of Pelennor Fields, she fought by King Théoden; when he was injured when fighting the Witch-king of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgûl, she and Merry (Meriadoc Brandybuck) 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, fulfilling that the Witch-king would not be slain by a man. However, the Witch-king actually recited the prophecy incorrectly: he said that "no living man may hinder me," though the prophecy actually said that "Not by the hand of Man will he fall." Glorfindel's prophecy, unlike his own version, implies that the Witch-king will eventually fall, and the Witch-king likely overestimated his own power and believed he would never be defeated.

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 wouldn't have been fatal, even if it did break the bonds that "bent his unseen sinews to his will." The consensus seems to be 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 House 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 didn't yet recover completely, she couldn't join Aragorn's army on their way to Mordor for the last confront with Dark Lord 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 Elessar. Éowyn was not known as the Princess of Ithilien, rather 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 Éowyn's death is nowhere recorded.

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Portrayal in adaptations

Image:Eowyn dragon.PNG 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 adaption 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 Dúnedain. And, judging by Aragorn's reaction to a bowl of stew she offered him, she was not much of a cook.

In the original theatrical release of 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 deleted 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.)

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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".
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.