[davem]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Eowyn learns from experience, and so I would not call her stupid. She is driven to extreme measures out of her frustration and despair, but she does change.

Turin by and large does not learn from his mistakes.

He does learn - he just learns the wrong things. And this brings up the larger question of the curse. To what extent can Turin 'learn' the right thing? Eowyn is not under Sauron's curse. Turin is driven by a belief that he can free himself from the curse he is under. He is seeking always to be free of his doom.

Turin is 'unlucky'. The choices he makes are all meant to bring about the Good. He isn't stupid at all. He is very smart, very cunning & a master strategist. He becomes a real threat to Morgoth's plans & in the end destroys his most powerful weapon. His strategy is, basically, 'the best defence is a good offence'. If Eowyn is driven by frustration & despair so is Turin most of the time.

Turin, for example, would not be so tragic if he learned from his mistakes.

As i said, he does learn from his mistakes - its the fact that he learns the wrong things from them that makes him a tragic hero - if he really learnt nothing at all from his mistakes he wouldn't be a tragic figure, he'd be an idiot & we wouldn't care about him.

And I think Turin & Eowyn are a lot closer than you imply - what if Niniel hadn't turned out to be Turin's sister - & what if Eowyn had been married before she rode to war &, after killing the Witch King it had turned out her husband was really her long lost brother?

Eowyn is 'lucky', & has a chance to learn from her mistakes, & find a new, meaningful life. Turin is 'unlucky' & doesn't. 'Call no man (or woman) lucky until he is dead' & all that.

If we're talking about greatest hero here we can't limit it either to being a nice guy, or to being lucky, or always winning. Turin is a great hero because he never gives in, always fights on, against insurmountable odds (even when he knows they are insurmountable. Being a hero doesn't mean being a nice guy who always wins. It means doing heroic things, facing the Dragon & standing your ground & not running.