Éowyn's Motivation

[cressidarambles]

sistermagpie recently asked me...

What would you say to the charge that Eowyn only goes into battle to prove herself to Aragorn, whom she was pining after, or that she went into battle for self-pity?I don't believe there is any currency to the idea that Éowyn goes into battle to "prove herself" to Aragorn. In the first place, the issues between them have

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Okay, finally!

[cressidarambles]

Whew! I've started more than once to compose an answer to your comment, and always had to stop because my answer got too long and I ran out of time. I suspect I may have to write up another essay to tackle this fully, but I'll try to boil down my thoughts into something that I can finish tonight. Apologies if this comes out disjointed!

I agree with some of what you say. I do think that a lot of Éowyn's problems stemmed from having to stay cooped up at home. Gandalf says as much in the Houses of Healing chapter, when he's explaining her problems to Éomer.

However, if she had wanted to rule Rohan, IMO she would have stayed behind and done so when Éomer and Théoden went off to war.

I don't know if I'd agree that Éowyn feels like a man, but I might agree that she wants to do a "man's job." Actually, being asked to stay and rule was a man's job--just not the job she wanted. Aragorn points out that if she didn't do it, "some marshal or captain" would be given the job. It strikes me as quite a compliment that she was selected for the job ahead of every other male warrior in the country, but she didn't seem to see it as one.

Rohan's culture isn't based completely around war. Horses are the real center of their society, and I'm not at all sure that horse-raising wouldn't be an acceptable profession for a king's offspring in a time of peace. But Éowyn didn't really even have that option, because she had to wait up on Théoden--and anyway, LOTR doesn't take place in a time of peace.

I get the impression that Rohan accepts and approves of the idea that women can fight. They wouldn't even have a word like "shieldmaiden" if they didn't. They just don't expect or want women to fight on the front lines.

The scene where Éowyn defends Merry's wish to fight is not in the books, by the way. Aragorn telling her that she won't have to sit around doing nothing all her life is also movie-only. The movies played up the sexism aspect much more than the books do, I think.