Háma was not merely
Théoden’s doorwarden, he was also captain of Théoden’s guard until his death at
Helm’s Gate. After Háma’s demise, Déorwine might have become captain, since
Tolkien describes him as “chief” of Théoden’s knights, who was killed in the
Battle of the Pelennor Fields before Théoden was wounded. We know there was a new captain of the guard because he announced the arrival of Hirgon, the errand-rider of
Gondor, at Dunharrow. (Sorry for the pedantry: just finished re-reading “The Pyre of
Denethor” a few hours ago, my umpteenth re-reading of
The Lord of the Rings.)
Háma’s personal initiative in permitting
Gandalf to retain his wizard’s staff is contrasted to the pugnacious refusal by the porter of the door to Rath Dínen to permit Beregond to follow Denethor and
Faramir to the royal tombs of
Minas Tirith.
As for the motivation behind
Éowyn’s riding with the
Rohirrim to battle at Minas Tirith, that is more complex, but I think it is made clear. First there is the emotional dialogue at Dunharrow between
Aragorn and Éowyn, who has fallen in love with him. She asks to join the Dúnedain of
Arnor on their expedition through the Paths of the Dead. When Aragorn replies that it is her duty to remain to rule over the people of
Rohan in Théoden’s absence, she virtually explodes, “Too often have I heard of duty! But am I not of the House of
Eorl, a shieldmaiden and not a dry-nurse?” The conversation goes downhill from there: Éowyn is
ambitious, skilled, strong, intelligent, and quite capable of holding her own against any but the best and strongest of opponents. (Including the
Witch-king, but he had other problems before he could dispatch her.) “I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death,” she declares, and when asked what she fears, she replies, “A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.” When Aragorn finally says no again to her riding with the Dúnedain, she not-too-indirectly declares her love for him and retires weeping for the night.
Later in the “Houses of Healing” (I’m reading that again now), Aragorn gently confronts
Éomer with Éowyn’s unrequited love for him, and Éomer, not blaming his friend Aragorn, puzzles over her actions that have nearly cost her her life. Gandalf replies,
“My friend,” said Gandalf, “you had
horses, and deeds of arms, and the free
fields; but she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours. Yet she was doomed to wait upon an old man, whom she loved as a father, and watch him falling into a mean dishonored dotage; and her part seemed to her more ignoble than that of the staff he leaned on.
“Think you that
Wormtongue had poison only for Théoden’s ears?
Dotard! What is the house of Eorl but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor among their dogs? Have you not heard those words before?
Saruman spoke them, the teacher of Wormtongue. Though I do not doubt that Wormtongue at home wrapped their meaning in terms more cunning. My lord, if your sister’s love for you, and her will still bent to her duty, had not restrained her lips; you might have heard even such things as these escape them. But who knows what she spoke to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the
walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?”
Then Éomer was silent, and looked on his sister, as if pondering anew all the days of their past life together.
When I was younger, and for most of my life, my favorite passage in the tale was the confrontation between Éowyn and the Witch-king: “Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace!” Now that I am older, my favorite scene is Faramir visiting Éowyn the gardens of the Houses of Healing, where he declares his love for her, and Éowyn sets aside her pride and ambition to return his love for a life of joy, happiness, contentment, and fulfillment. Neither Saruman nor Denethor, whom most would account “greater” persons, could set aside their pride and ambition, but Éowyn proves herself greater, wiser, and of stronger personality that either of them. Like them, she is given the choice to renounce her previous path for another, but unlike them, she has the courage, strength, and fortitude to do it. Her proclamation,
I stand in
Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun; and behold the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.
is not only a complete change in her life’s path, not only a prelude to her accepting Faramir’s love, affection, and admiration (which is real and not feigned! Faramir was himself an accomplished warrior), but her claim of her
Númenórean heritage: her mother’s mother was
Morwen of Lossarnach, a woman of high Númenórean blood whose family hailed from Belfalas, Théoden’s mother who probably strongly influenced the early years of her life in Meduseld. For Éowyn is neither addressing nor looking at Faramir when she says this: she is looking into the West, addressing the
Valar.
Sam changes more than any other character in
The Lord of the Rings, progressing from gardener and
batman (in the British military sense) to
Frodo’s heir and the founder of the Gardeners of The Hill. But Éowyn’s character arc is next in its expanse and change: She is one of my favourite characters in
The Lord of the Rings.
