White Lady, With Lamp

[altariel]

It was she they wanted, Lady Wraithbane.

White Lady, With Lamp

Ithilien, in the Fourth Age

In the years after, so many of them came that a house was built in a tranquil valley where Elves now dwelt. Young men no more, the horror of that past still shaped their desolate present. Elf-song soothed them – but it was she they wanted, Lady Wraithbane, whose deed felled a dread king.

And Éowyn welcomed each of them, and fought for them, and ordered a fair house for them. But their devotion baffled her. She never quite grasped what her husband always knew – that pity was hers too, and the healing love can be strong as well as gentle.

Comments

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

What an intriguing idea. I've always struggled a bit with the way JRRT suddenly flips Eowyn from shield-maiden to "now I'll be all peaceful and plant gardens" - not because I think it's impossible, but he doesn't put any effort into making it a convincing change. It's as though he got to the end of the story, suddenly realised he'd allowed a woman to get out of the "healing/tending/nurturing" box (cage?) and hastily stuffed her back in it. So I do like Fourth Age fic which attempts to do what JRRT hand-waved.

I am wrestling, now, with the grammar of "it was she they wanted" - "it was she who did xyz", yes, but surely "it was her they wanted", as it would be "they wanted her" not "they wanted she"? Or am I completely confused?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Tolkien has an interesting aside about Éowyn in the Letters (244): "[S]he was not herself ambitious in the true political sense. Though not a 'dry nurse' in temper, she was also not really a soldier or 'amazon', but like many brave women was capable of great military gallantry at a crisis".

It seems to me that Éowyn wants freedom, and an active life - and in her culture, that means being a Rider. Instead she gets to watch Theoden get sicker. Later, she wants death, rather than wanting battle. But when she doesn't die, and when real freedom is offered - she takes it. Gondor will open up a bigger world to Éowyn than Rohan ever could. I think she would find many projects upon which to lavish her considerable energy and talents, and I imagined the one in the drabble as only a small part. Gondor's population is about to explode. Perhaps we could think of her as Minister for Health. (Part of what I was getting at with the Florence Nightingale allusion: statistician and health reformer, rather than Angel of Scutari.)

ETA: I wrote: Gondor will open up a bigger world to Éowyn than Rohan ever could. I think she would find many projects upon which to lavish her considerable energy and talents

Actually, that was sort of what A Game of Chess was going to be about originally, Éowyn's adjustment to her new life, and then the shellshock came out of nowhere, and the story became about both of them adjusting to their new life.


I did have 'her' but changed it for 'she', because the word is so much stronger. Perhaps this was the nickname these men had for her. "She is coming to day! What did She have to say to you? Have you spoken to She about it?"

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

It is Herself that's in it.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It is yourself that has a way with pronouns.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

(Part of what I was getting at with the Florence Nightingale allusion: statistician and health reformer, rather than Angel of Scutari.)

ningloreth has Fourth Age Eowyn as a detective rather in Brother Cadfael mode (at Eryn Carantaur) - that's rather fun too, although her 'ship is Legolas/Eowyn, so very AU in that sense and thus might not be your cup of tea...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Wow, what an amazing site. Had no idea those stories existed. I think I'd get too sad reading about F/E breaking up, but it's a great idea for a set of stories.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

The site is visually stunning - and like a deluxe DVD with extra scenes, Easter eggs, illustrations... (I get the feeling ningloreth's personal M-E is quite strongly rooted in the movieverse, at least visually, so that may be no accident)

For me she needs to do a little more in the early stories to explain just how Eowyn happens to know exactly how to carry out forensic murder investigations (the way Ellis Peters does by making Cadfael both an ex-soldier, so he knows about violent death, and a herbalist so he knows about poisons...) - and also to convince me, not that Faramir might have been gay, but that he would have married Eowyn knowing that - but she writes entertainingly enough that when I'm in the mood I can handwave the setup and enjoy the ride... (Nothing to do with Teh Hot Elf Sex. Honest. Ahem.)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

(Nothing to do with Teh Hot Elf Sex. Honest. Ahem.)

A little Hot Elf Sex makes up for a lot.