I have revisited Lord of the Rings recently and got enamoured again by Eowyn, the unlikely hero of the Battle of the Pelenor Fields. She has a small role in the entire lore, even just in the Third Age, but she left a lasting impression on me.
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…. ‘But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund’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.’
She went into the battlefield incognito and only Merry knew who she was (in the movie; but in the book Merry didn’t know who she was until she revealed herself to the Witch-King). Eowyn went to her doom to protect the people that she loved. And Merry went with her, thinking that she shouldn’t die alone.
I’ve been feeling down lately, maybe because of the weather. I needed some pick-me-up, like a good book or movie so I went to read and watch LOTR since it is both a good book and movie/s. I want to tap into that inner Eowyn in me and be badass when the sky seemed so dark. Funny thing was, for 20 years, I used Lúthien Tinúviel as my pen name instead of Eowyn, the White Lady of Rohan. Now I don’t know why I wanted to fashion myself into a half-royal, half-divine entity when Eoywn is more kickass. I’m not even attracted to the Tale of Lúthien and Beren; they just figured in my subconscious mind because Tolkien associated himself and his wife Edith with Beren and Lúthien. It’s even written on their tombstones.
I’ve been known in our house as the Tolkien geek. My brother even gave me an illustrated notebook of LOTR as a birthday gift more than a decade ago, which I still keep. It’s where I wrote the character sketches for my novel that I worked on but burned and deleted 10 years ago.
I read all the Tolkien books (including Silmarillion and all the appendices) every year during Christmas breaks before I had children. (Once you become a mother, you don’t have time for other things, such as reading epics). I tried keeping tabs on the genealogy because lineage matters in these books. And oh, Tolkien’s being a Catholic is all over the Middle Earth lore, maybe that’s why it brings comfort at times.
“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
There are criticisms that Tolkien doesn’t flesh out his characters well and he is more into the events and lore. Perhaps it is true. His weakness in drawing characters is compensated by his larger vision, the narrative, and his ability to transport me into another world—his world—with his words. His stories are about the journey and not the destination.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
My cats. My obnoxious and destructive cats. This is my version of “Teacher, my cat ate my homework!”
Look at that. And she stayed there all morning. Shameless cat. 🐈