May your hemorrhoids shrink without surgery.
Just like to make another post. I realise that my first posts in this thread seemed to be pretty pro-Arwen but I was just correcting inane arguments. I am neither wholly against or for
Arwen, but I adore
Éowyn.
Why do I like Éowyn? Mainly, because she embodies (or nearly everything) that I would ever want in a woman. Her individualistic attitude, her rebellion against the narrow minded opinions of
Men, her belief in herself, her strength of will and character, her stubborn disposition, her valour in standing up to the lord of the
Nazgûl for the love of
Théoden Ednew and her grace, dignity and kindness, which at times shined through her sexy, callous exterior. (Well she was callous to
Faramir when she first met him, which I found annoying because Faramir was a beautiful and compassionate Man.)
Not that I’m saying Éowyn was perfect, far from it, she had her inherent flaws, but to me flaws are more attractive then perfection because to me, perfection is inhuman. (In the sense that it contradicts the very nature of Humans, imperfection)
Éowyn of course was at times petulant, even foolish.
Gandalf’s words to
Éomer about Éowyn’s discernment in regards to Théoden’s illness and senility and the state of House of
Eorl are echoed when Éowyn states;
“And yet it is good beyond all that I dared hope in the dark days, when it seemed that the House of Eorl had sunk in honour less then any shepherds cot”
Seemed to me to be rather petulant, though I can still sympathise with her anger at the demise in the health and state of mind of Théoden, and her inability to do anything about it. At least Théodred and Éomer could go to war (That is when
Saruman’s intentions were known and his soldiers began to attack
Rohan, Rohan was not at war with
Mordor, as Éomer tells
Aragorn despite the theft of their
horses by Orks of
Barad-dûr).
But Rohan I think Rohan was a lot like
Gondor became in it’s latter days, as Beregond, Faramir and
Denethor state, that warriors are held in high esteem, and prowess in battle are valued over nobility and wisdom. It must have been frustrating for Éowyn to sit in Edoras whilst
Theoden became more and more senile and the pride of the House of Eorl withered.
Yet, Éowyn seems to lose all hope when she realises that Aragorn will never lover her, and to me here we can see her weakness (which she tries her best to hide) and you are struck by a sense of tragedy, this poor woman will never be loved by the Man of her dreams. Though once can see a sense of fickleness in regard to her love for Aragorn, I think she loved his lordliness more, and I think that she may have looked to him as a substitute for the diminishing House of Eorl, and he was the means by which she could feel high and queenly, someone in authority “and you wished to have renown and glory and be lifted far above the mean things that crawl on the earth” as Faramir rather cynically puts it and at times she can be childish (when she requests for her to look Eastwards so she could be facing Aragorn, I couldn’t help but think “Aww, bless how CUTE!” yet she was a “lady high and valiant and have yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten” and “but she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours” and “Few other griefs amid the ill chances of the world have more bitterness and shame for a Man’s heart then to behold the love of a lady so fair and brave that cannot be returned”. What I like most about Éowyn is the complexity of her character, not only is she the ’cold lady of the Rohhirm’, but also the ‘wild shield maiden’, but at the same time she is strong, dignified and brave and I find such things more beautiful then physical beauty. You do not have to be pretty to be beautiful and Éowyn for her grace and dignity is to me the most beautiful woman in the book, I do not desire the grace of Arwen or beauty of
Galadriel or the hairy feet of Rosie.
Interestingly,
Tolkien originally intended for Aragorn and Éowyn to get together (HoME 7; Treason of
Isengard) and he also panned out several tragic endings to their love-affair but in the end he decided that Aragorn was to old and grim for Éowyn. (She comments on his grimness after he looks in the
Palantír and is on his way to the Paths of the Dead) I think that having Arwen as the woman who ends up with Aragorn is more satisfactory for several reasons (Him going out in the wild, his perseverance in becoming
King of Gondor, the union of the line of the
Half-Elven) and also because I think that Faramir and Éowyns love is more true then Éowyn and Aragorn‘s. “But now, were you sorrow less, without fear or any lack were you blissful Queen of Gondor, still I would love you Éowyn” *sniff* (In the same way that Arwen was similar to
Lúthien, Éowyn was similar to
Morwen, her grand-mother, who married Thengel. (The Appendix and ‘Of
Dwarves and Men’ (HoME 12) tell us that Thengel dwelt in Gondor for a long time, because he did not get along with his greedy father, Fengel.)
In regards to feminism, I am in the rather unusual position of being a male Feminist. Though I dislike ‘radical feminism’ I sympathise with the views put forward by ’Marxist feminists’ and to a lesser extent ’liberal’ and ‘black feminists’ and I support the ideas of independence and self-dependence that Feminism promotes and the rights of women in a (by and large) patriarchal society. (Though at times my feminists friends can get annoying, whenever I say something stupid they say its “just like a Man” I really think that their movement can do without the paranoia about any idiotic statement that a Man makes. Everyone makes idiotic remarks, not just Men, and it is not some kind of patriarchal, sexist, machoisitc conspiracy). To me feminism is not about marching and voicing your disgust with Men, but about standing up for yourself, gaining a voice and taking pride in the fact that you are a woman. (Though one could argue that you don’t have to be a feminist to believe in those things, that is what in my eyes feminism stands for.)