[Lindale]

A very quick thought regarding feminism, Eowyn, Erendis, and women-left-at-home-when-men-go-to-war:

As mark notes from the book: ‘All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. ’

And as Erendis says to Ancalime: 'Thus it is, Ancalime, and we cannot alter it. For men fashioned Numenor: men, those heroes of old that they sing of; of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain. Numenor was to be a rest after war. But if they were weary of rest and the plays of peace, soon they will go back to their great play, manslaying and war. Thus it is; and we are set here among them. But we need not assent. If we love Numenor also, let us enjoy it before they ruin it. We also are daughters of the great, and we have wills and courage of our own. Therefore do not bend, Ancalime. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.'

Hopelessness seemed to be the lot of women for ages, IRL and in Tolkien, but to be put that way by two, well, aristocratic women but from different times... These two just fought it. Perhaps that's why they are so noteworthy: very few women in Tolkien achieve so much. Sometimes I think Erendis seems stronger, because she interpellates Ancalime so strongly with this ideology, but loses her daughter's love, which is all she has that is worthwhile; whereas Eowyn lives to see her moment of glory realized after killing the Witch-King. On the other hand, I too do not like Eowyn becoming a healer... Not that I think healers don't have a special place in their societies, but well, aren't women healers allowed in Minas Tirith but they never are soldiers? So it's still a second-level designation. Eowyn was put in her 'proper' place--ideologically (she will be a shield-maiden no longer) and literally (she retires from military service forever).