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

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

...the healing love can be strong as well as gentle.

Indeed! I never know what to say to your drabbles, but I'm enjoying the outpouring. And I love that icon :)

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

How utterly beautiful. Simply perfect.

*bows deeply*

You tempt me to collect those little marvels and post them on my site. There is more than one faithful reader who cauteously asks for a drabble or two from time to time. And how I'd love to show them these!

And why the heck did I write marbles first? Silly brain.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

These short stories have the feeling of a consistent world behind them. Not just Tolkien's, but the Ithilien that you write about.

[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?

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

And still they come! These lovely, lovely drabbles.

It may not have been trench warfare, but it would still lead to the desolation of the present, and yes, it would take someone of Éowyn's strength to understand that and pour out a healing measure.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

These drabbles are beautiful, and an enlightening insight into the world after the war. I have long had a great fondness for Éowyn, though I suspect that may be at least be partly due to the fact that she is the only female character I feel I can identify with. You make her more real -- it seems to me Tolkien only really gave us a very brief glimpse of Éowyn -- and I love seeing her have a good life. I thoroughly agree with your comment above that what Éowyn wants is freedom, and she is definitely clever enough to recognize it when it is presented to her.

[wormwood-7.livejournal.com]

Lovely!
I think you maybe right, that Eowyn never quite grasped that pity was hers too. She who wanted "no man's pity"...
I think Ithilien meant space for Eowyn, on many levels, and as you say freedom to unfold in a way that had been impossible for her in Rohan.

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

Music as healer of PTSD... seems to have been rediscovered Age after Age.

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

I like this future for Éowyn quite a lot - and the allusion to Florence Nightingale is a clever and very suitable one. It's so easy to see her superficially as some model of caring and nurturing Victorian womanhood and thus completely misrepresent her amazing achievements. Similarly, the White Lady of Ithilien would have had her work cut out for her, with or without a sword. (And healing is so much harder than killing, in the end.)