I don’t have very original thoughts because it was so long since I reread the books, so I probably will expand on this later! but from what I remember, eowyn really is a fascinating character and I’m thinking of rereading almost solely for her benefit. to begin with, she’s the lone narratively important woman - which is something she explicitly struggles with. the lone she-warrior is a constant in epic literature, from virgil to tasso but her situational place in the narrative is still that of an alien. she’s always referring to the fate awaiting her as a woman in this abstract way, as there are no other women around her she can exchange with. structurally, in lotr, being a woman means to relinquish the center stage or as eowyn puts it, “to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more”. all in all, it creates this meta textual echo to her words and actions, as she keeps pointing out her isolation. it really feels like she’s this resistant little blinking light saying : I deserve an inner life, I deserve a place here. let me have it. consequently, and throughout the books, her arc follows her bargaining for a place on the main stage, where meaning can be won. everyone who meets her is always noting how strong she is and there’s this beautiful and constant referring to the cold and the slow corrupting despair she struggles with. on a meta textual level, her situation is a precarious one, we know that and she knows that - she’s been fighting to be there since page one, commanding textual relevance, whether it be from loving main protagonist aragorn or by fleeing to the battle with merry. her moment of triumph, when she’s fighting the witch king, feels earned because we understand what struggles brought her here (you look upon a woman!), alongside merry. and when merry gets to the king and make amends for his joining the battle, I always thought theodin’s answer rang like something that should have been addressed to eowyn : brave hearts will not be denied! she treads on a very gendered path but I love how combative and demanding she is - she will not be denied! and I love how it feels like she’s winning this place in the story from tolkien himself, waving around her credentials of germanic she-maidens and quoting judith in the scriptures. I think it’s beautiful that she doesn’t die, I think it’s clever that the one she loves in the house of healing isn’t the king but the unloved; the one who took on the narrative she fled and ended up “burned in the house”. I love that her act of fleeing that narrative meant that he had to take it on and I love that, in the end, she’s taking care of him and he of her. lotr is very much about love and sharing the burden of cares, what with the ring sitting at the center of the story - but that same narrative exists between faramir and eowyn. they exchanged places! she got the horrors of war and he got the domestic funeral pyre. and so it would make total sense that they’d heal together.
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