Éowyn
in Love
by Fan Forever
I have read several comments about how fast
Éowyn discarded Aragorn for Faramir. I, too, wondered at the
speed it
took for her (and him!) to fall in love. But especially Éowyn,
since
her heart seemed to have been ravished, then broken, by what she felt
for the future king. I agree with others that Aragorn might have been
‘only’ an adolescent crush, the love of an image more than anything
else. It might have been just a rush of blood at the prospect of
entering a life that was to be high and noble, or even perhaps the
relief of getting a bit of recognition as a woman and a princess.
But she was welcomed with denial. Let’s be
honest, how could she not be jealous and literally crushed to see the
others, ALL the others, follow one man they admired and loved into what
she knew was a path leading them all to their doom? They were, all of
them, the living representation of what she had longed for all her
life, and worse, they, who were going with HIM, they were indeed ‘able’
to love him, to live out their love for him, and not she.
We know the rest. Now, she wakes up in the
Houses of Healing very depressed, to say the least, quite sure she will
never heal from that blow (let's forget about the Witch King for now),
on top of everything that she had been denied before in her life, to
live her young years being restrained into the life of a docile maiden,
and later to look after an ailing uncle, while her desire was to be
part of what she felt to be more useful to her land, more honourable,
more suited to her royal heritage.
Add to that that Éomer saw nothing of her
sister’s plight until Gandalf (yes, Gandalf!) explains to him that her
illness and low spirits and her going to war to die was not only
because of Aragorn, but because of her feeling unsatisfied in every
aspect of her life.
So, what happened with Faramir? Was she
fickle after all, underneath the noble look? Of course not. How come
she changed her mind so quickly then? I often wondered about that, even
though I remember in my many readings not having been displeased at all
by their romance :-)
I have thought more about that and what I see now is this:
The first thing I thought was that that
romance bloomed in a time of war. Things just go more quickly when you
feel your time is counted. Every minute counts and you don’t lose any
time wandering here and there.
Then it appeared to me that, sharing a common
situation, being confined in a hospital under the care of doctors, they
must have found in each other, as they talked long, long hours, day
after day, a great source of comfort. Tolkien does not tell of what
they talked when they met everyday, but to think of it, they must have
shared their worries and their views about the future, or even talked
about the past, and their own lives in their own families. Faramir and
Éowyn share much, indeed, in their respective situations inside
their
families.
Faramir was also a deeply respectful man, and
talking about the war (and they would, as after all, she was a
shieldmaiden and knew about being a warrior, and indeed they both had
been wounded while fighting), he would have most certainly brought up
his dislike of killing any living thing, even enemies. That alone is
bound to have made a young 24 years old Éowyn think further than
her
own needs and longings.
Day after day, sheltered from the outside
world despite themselves, they had for them what was denied to everyone
else : time. Time to share what they liked, what they disliked, their
dreams, their sorrows, their hopes. Time to communicate and learn about
each other. Time to enjoy their mutual presence, slowly recovering as
best as they can from both their physical and psychological wounds.
Something Aragorn would not have been able to give her.
Éowyn resisted though, she did hang onto that
image of a man greater than nature, a king and a formidable leader
revered by both Elves and Men, but who rejected her. At last, in one of
their conversations she gets bitter and admits to Faramir that she was
after Aragorn, not him – a last attempt at trying to hold on to what
she knows is made of clay…
When Faramir openly declares his love to her,
that would she be the queen, he would still love her, that he pities
her no more, it is the final blow, her resistance is broken and she is
able to let go. It is clear that both Faramir and Éowyn grew to
know
each other and quickly learn who they were through their daily
encounters.
When Éowyn lets go of her image of an icy
cold shieldmaiden, she calls herself ‘tamed’ with what I remember to be
a faint smile, and indeed something has calmed down inside her, she is
more at peace when she says that. She seems relieved even, as if a
great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Then we learn that she
will be a healer from now on, and later we learn that she will stay for
a while in the Houses of healing to help.
I admit that it is somewhat strange to see
her turn around like that. But I wonder if Faramir’s influence might
not have been a trigger; it just did not come from nowhere. But Tolkien
is, again, very sparse on details... It must have come from long hours
talking, pondering, sharing, knowing that they had only so much time
until they knew the fate of the world. It must have been intense,
profound and right down to the essential. No idle talk there…
So perhaps this is there we have to find some
sort of an explanation to Éowyn’s sudden change of mind. Well,
it’s not
so much that she ‘changed’ her mind, I think, but that she was ‘forced’
– by destiny, by fate or whatever – to take the time to look into her
own heart and see what was truly at stake.
In the few days they spent together, Éowyn
would have learned to know what Faramir held, and realised how truly
blessed she was after all. For where, in all the world she knew, would
she have found both a warrior and a caring man, high born and aware of
his duties, but kind and letting love rule his heart, thoughts and
actions, willing to live a simple life (yet not a simplistic one),
close to nature but not far from the city and his beloved king. Most
importantly, already she could trust him, and so she must have known
that with Faramir, no limits would be put to her life, both as a
wielder of blade and a caring healer.
Yup, Éowyn did fall rather quickly for Faramir, but boy did she
have good reasons…. :-)
Thanks for listening!
FF
