Eowyn and the extra woman
 

Before I ask my question, I have to confirm this: was Eowyn's 'shield maiden' and... well, tomboy, I suppose, character due to her being brought up among only men? Or was it to do with her surroundings and the history of the Rohirrim, ie. natural warriors with a fierce and grave nature, or whatever? Or both? Or something else?

I heard it was due to her men-only upbringing, so my question is based on that idea.
Tolkien originally decided that Theoden should have a daughter as well as his son Theodred. Do you think this would have altered Eowyn's character in any way? Would it have prompted her to remain in the home and avoid a love of battle? Or would both women have longed for glory on the battlefield?

Also, would she still have been the object of Wormtongue's desires? I don't know if there was any 'value' or 'status' to women, ie. the king's daughter was more highly regarded than the king's niece. As in a suitable wife... Um... I can't explain very well today. I hope you know what I mean there.

Basically, would another woman in the Rohirric royal household have made any difference in any way, mainly to Eowyn and her character, behaviour, whatever. And how might it have affected any other characters, if at all?

I don't know why I didn't just say that in the beginning... sorry for dragging you through all that babble [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I think it's just a question of personality. Eowyn has a tomboy-ish personality, and it would have been the same had she grown up in a house full of women. The fact that she grew up with a bunch of men just gave her an incentive to show that she was still better than them, even if she was a woman.

I think that if Eowyn had a female cousin/sister then she probably wouldn't have been as tomboyish. As she lived among men she probably wanted to be more similar to them so that she was 'accepted', if you like.
I speak from personal experience as I have 3 brothers and am the only sister. I consider myself to be pretty tomboyish. I play sport a lot, when I was younger I was into Power Rangers instead of Barbies and even now I hate pink and chick flicks. I am genrally not very girly. I put this down to my bothers influencing me.
So I think that another woman would probably have influenced Eowyn to be more feminine, just like me having a sister would have probably made me less of a tomboy.

I agree with Finwe - I think it was mostly pesonality. And hey, for all we know, that other "woman of the house" might've been just as tomboyish as Éowyn. They could've practiced swordfighting together. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I think Grima would have wanted to marry the daughter, because she was the sucessor to the throne, and that is probably why he wanted Éowyn in the first place (it's not like he'd had enough intelligent conversations with her to like her personality). Also, Éowyn would probably feel even more excluded, because the princess would have had all the attention, and perhaps Éowyn would be a "Cinderella" figure- a member of the family who was there, but seemingly just there because she was family. Theoden would have no need for her. He wouldn't bother being a father figure, because he had an actual daughter to be a father to. She wouldn't be the woman of the house, for the princess would inadvertently steal that role too.
Now, Éomer is a different matter altogether. He probably would have more respect from Theoden's court because he was a successful fighter, and actually went out and did stuff (killing enemies to earn glory etc.).
I think Tolkien liked Éowyn too much to let that happen to her, and he didn't want the main feeling for her to be pity, as it would have been had the horrors above taken place, so he decided to laisser tomber to Rohirric Princess.

Eowyn would have been the same whether or not there were other women in her life. The only one who may have changed her even slighly was her mother. But, hey, being a tomboy is no bad thing. We have all the fun