Awhile ago I read The Idiot’s Guide to The Lord of the Rings because I like having things explained to me like I’m five, and it was pretty good except for an argument that the author made that J.R.R. Tolkein is inherently sexist because at the end, he wrote that Eowyn renounced being a warrior and wanted to get married. And while you can definitely pose the “why not both?” question, you have to remember that Tolkein was a veteran who lost two of his best friends in WWI. He wasn’t saying that Eowyn was bad for having lived outside of traditional gender roles, he was using his own experiences to show what someone who just went through a horrific battle would actually do.
Love this point so much- a lot of fantasy that is partially inspired by Tolkien’s world has an edge of battle lust in it, a “your prowess as a warrior is the best thing, ergo battles all the time to show it off is the best thing, there’s no consequences ~fantasy~!”
And every. single. one. of Tolkien’s characters who are great warriors get hit with the reality of death- the death of their families, their friends, their PEOPLE. War is a means to an end, only to defend people that need protecting. It is always, always, always, too high a cost to pay.
I have complicated feelings on this, but getting married and settling down is pretty much the happy ending for everyone except Frodo, so it’s not a sexist thing
Forever annoyed by the idea that a woman’s only agency lies in how much she can act like a man and/or isolate herself. smh.
This reminds me: I just reread this exchange between Aragorn and Éowyn in The Return of the King and it Says A Lot (my commentary in bold):
***
“Lord,” she said, “if you must go, then let me ride in your following. For I am weary of skulking in the hills, and wish to face peril and battle.”
“Your duty is with your people,” he answered.
“Too often have I heard of duty,” she cried. “But am I not of the House of Eorl, a shieldmaiden and not a dry-nurse? I have waited on faltering feet long enough. Since they falter no longer, it seems, may I not now spend my life as I wish?”
“Few may do that with honour,” he answered. [This is Aragorn, remember, a king born in exile with very little prospect of doing whatever he liked with his life!] “But as for you, lady: did you not accept the charge to govern the people until their lord’s return? [That’s right, Théoden left her in charge, because she was by far the most popular choice among her people.] If you had not been chosen, then some marshal or captain would have been set in the same place, and he could not ride away from his charge, were he weary of it or no.”
“Shall I always be chosen?” she said bitterly. “Shall I always be left behind when the Riders depart, to mind the house while they win renown, and find food and beds when they return?”
“A time may come soon,” said he, “when none will return. Then there will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.”
[This reminds me of the Anne Marrow Lindbergh quote: “What woman resents is not so much giving herself in pieces as giving herself purposelessly. What we fear is not so much that our energy may be leaking away through small outlets as that it may be ‘going down the drain.’”]
And she answered: “All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. [Ouch.] But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death. [For anyone super dense, she is saying she wants to go down fighting rather than waiting around to become Orc food when the men in her family aren’t alive to defend her anymore.]
“What do you fear, lady?” he asked. [Look at Aragorn simultaneously acknowledging her dauntlessness and realizing this is actually a conversation about fear.]
“A cage,” she said. “To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds [using her talents and abilities to help bring about a better outcome than death] is gone beyond recall or desire.”
“And yet you counselled me not to adventure on the road that I have chosen, [Aragorn acknowledging he at least got to choose danger] because it is perilous?”
“So may one counsel another,” she said. “Yet I do not bid you flee from peril, but to ride to battle where your sword may win renown and victory. I would not see a thing that is high and excellent cast away needlessly.” [She’s afraid here that he’s going to die unnecessarily and prematurely on the Paths of the Dead, rather than going straight into battle. But Aragorn knows they need the Army of the Dead’s numbers if they’re going to stand a chance against Sauron’s horde, so he steps up to take the risk.]
“Nor would I,” he said. “Therefore I say to you, lady: Stay! For you have no errand in the South.” [Aw, he thinks she’s high and excellent. But, spoiler alert: she ain’t gonna be told to stay anywhere.]
“Neither have those others who go with thee. [Legolas and Gimli and the sons of Elrond shift uncomfortably in the background.] They go only because they would not be parted from thee—because they love thee.”
***
OH SNAP. Yeah… Tolkien must be sexist, for eschewing the glorification of violence and war, and revealing that all of Éowyn’s boredom and anxiety and marvelous skill and bravery is ultimately motivated by… love. (Just like all the dudes in the room.) GASP.
I couldn’t even type out this passage without getting all the feels, because Aragorn and Éowyn are both so noble and complex and yet wonderfully relatable, especially when they’re talking past each other, even while trying to outdo one another in bestowing honor. I’m always amazed by Tolkien’s understanding of feminine energy. Then again, he had some pretty amazing, highly-regarded women in his life.
So yeah, read over that passage again, and marvel at how it’s a conversation about responsibility no wait leadership no wait frustration no wait fear no wait love. About all of those things. About being HUMAN. Because women are human, funnily enough.
And as for that spoiler alert: Éowyn goes after the thing she wants… namely, riding into battle beside the people she loves, fighting with and for them, taking out a Big Baddie in a super-satisfying surprise reveal, and then… watching her loved ones die, nearly dying herself, realizing war is really as terrible as everyone said, battling depression and PTSD, and then meeting a sympathetic, humble, gracious, wise, and admiring knight with whom she can start a family of her own (instead of merely being a nurse to her elderly relatives) and continue to lead her people even while settling down to live out the rest of her life in a state of relative peace and love and wholesomeness.
But yeah… Marriage really ruins a gal. (sarcasm)
This is my first time reading the original (english) text and I’m so shocked at how Eowyn and Aragorn are not only talking on eye level, they’re also telling each other to stay for the same reason. Both are saying “you’re a leader, don’t go to die in combat, you’re more valuable this way”. He doesn’t tell her to stay back because that’s her place as a woman, despite the fact that there seem to be gender specific roles. So Tolkien, in something written from 1917 to 1957, makes a point not only on how men and women are inherently equally qualified for leadership and combat (despite society’s ooinion on that), but also presents Aragorn as a role model who treats them that way.
