[Lalwendë]

There is something within Eowyn which I think would stop me from ever calling her actions in any way evil. She does abandon her command and go off to war in disguise, but this in itself is not as evil as actions of many many other characters. Presuming she goes to war in order to find some way to assuage her love for Aragorn, her actions are not unusual. Legolas says of Aragorn's devoted followers:

all those who come to know him come to love him after their own fashion, even the cold maiden of the Rohirrim.

This perhaps says more about Aragron and the kind of devotion he engenders than Eowyn's 'love'; he may have this effect on many more people. We do not know if Aragron meets any other young women trained to the sword, but I feel that if he did, then they too would feel the same 'love' that Eowyn feels. It is a high-minded, admiring love rather than the love for any kind of soul-mate. Faramir describes the love she has felt for him thus:

You desired to have the love of the Lord Aragorn. Because he was high and puissant, and you wished to have renown and glory and to be lifted far above the mean things that crawl on the earth. And as a great captain may to a young soldier he seemed to you admirable. For so he is, a lord among men, the greatest that now is. But when he gave you only understanding and pity, then you desired to have nothing, unless a brave death in battle.

It seems that Aragorn is well aware of the nature of Eowyn's 'love' for him. He is not altogether comfortable with it, but he he knows that this love she has is born of desperation, coming from the days when she is unloved and threatened by Grima, trapped with an elderly uncle, and in a household filled with tough fighting men. He sees that Eowyn sees him as a leader as much as a love interest:

For she is a fair maiden, fairest lady of a house of queens. And yet I know not how I should speak of her. When I first looked on her and perceived her unhappiness, it seemed to me that I saw a white flower standing straight and proud, shapely as a lily, and yet knew that it was hard, as if wrought by elf-wrights out of steel. Or was it, maybe, a frost that had turned its sap to ice, and so it stood, bitter-sweet, still fair to see, but stricken, soon to fall and die? Her malady begins far back before this day, does it not, Eomer?'

Aragorn does try to stay Eowyn, and keep her from an awful fate. Has he had this situation before? He also gives her a lecture on her dereliction of duty if she leaves Meduseld unattended; in so many words, he says that this would be an evil act. But then contrast this with the effect that Faramir has on her:

'I would have you command this Warden, and bid him let me go,' she said; but though her words were still proud, her heart faltered, and for the first time she doubted herself. She guessed that this tall man, both stern and gentle, might think her merely wayward, like a child that has not the firmness of mind to go on with a dull task to the end.

With this man, she is prepared to listen and he even seems to have the effect on her that she ought to behave better in some way. He has some kind of control over her, though not of misplaced power. Does this show how she did not really love Aragorn? That he could not command her, but Faramir clearly can. Faramir can see that she has been besotted with Aragorn, partly due to his leadership qualities; he can see that she has been inspired by him. While with Faramir, she finds real love. The following scene between Eowyn and Faramir is quite beautiful (it also describes the tension on the edge of the cracks of doom) as it describes how time does indeed seem to stop and the world almost disappears when we fall in love:

And they said no more; and it seemed to them as they stood upon the wall that the wind died, and the light failed, and the Sun was bleared, and all sounds in the City or in the lands about were hushed: neither wind, nor voice, nor bird-call, nor rustle of leaf, nor their own breath could be heard; the very beating of their hearts was stilled. Time halted.

And as they stood so, their hands met and clasped, though they did not know it.

I cannot think that Eowyn was evil in any way for going AWOL. She was driven by something desperate, not entirely of Aragorn's making. And she saw in him some kind of freedom offered, or another way of life better than being nurse maid to an old man. Yet then she is rewarded by a rare thing, finding instinctive, real love with Faramir. That can't surely be a reward for an evil person? Or can it be? I think Eowyn was definitely in despair - for much more than her 'crush' on Aragorn, but as for whether she is acting out of free will, I'm not sure. She seems to do much on an instinctive level, from falling for Aragorn to making the decision to abandon her post and ride to war. In fact, she does not seem to act of free will until she falls in love with Faramir and suddenly is then hit by the fact as though she has woken from a nightmare:

Then the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her.