[Thenamir]

Re: Arwen -vs- Eowyn

THere is an interesting post from one of the old TOlkien newsgroups (remember those?) on this one, and I thought it particularly apropos, so I post it here in its entirety:

"Let's start with Luthien... along with being the 'fairest child of Elves or Men', the daughter of a Maia, and the most accomplished singer of all time, she also loved her man so much as to be willing to knock out her guards and leave home and face down Sauron and beat Sauron's sorry a** just to stand by him. She was willing to go with him straight to Thangorodrim itself, put one over on Morgoth(!), and even after all that still cared for him so much that she was willing to go to Mandos and talk the Valar into bringing Beren back to life. Let's face it: Luthien Tinuviel was one hot thoroughly accomplished scared-o-nothin' clever-as-heck she-elf.

"Now, let's look at Arwen... According to Return of the King appendices A and B, Aragorn first met Arwen and fell in love with her in T.A. 2951 - but Arwen wouldn't even give him the time of day until twenty-nine years later. Her father, Elrond, made it clear that she wasn't gonna marry Aragorn unless he became the Ruler of Gondor and Arnor; and when Aragorn joined the Fellowship and went forth on the hopeless mission to overthrow Sauron, did Arwen help him, as Luthien helped Beren? No! She stayed at home and read magazines until the War was already down to the last gasp, and even then she refused to show up herself but just sent all of Aragorn's friends south to offer all the moral support instead! Oh, sure, once all the dirty work was already done, then she shows up - probably carried all the way there in a sedan chair by some sweating oafish admirers - to finally say, 'Ohhhh, Aragorn! Now that you've become the king of several hundred thousand square miles of prime real-estate and defeated all of our dire enemies, suddenly you look much more handsome', and in the blink of an eye she's all ready to say the heck with what Dad thinks and marry him. ...Put it all together and what have you got? A cheap, greedy, standoffish gold-digging trollop.

"Luthien or Arwen? Come on! Stop kidding around. The 'fairest child of Elves or Men' wins hands down. If you're going to give us a contest, at least make it a relatively fair one."

To which I can only add...

Touche!