Hope-lessly in love

[The Silver-shod Muse]

To my mind, Éowyn's "love" for Aragorn is similar in character to Romeo's love for Rosaline

So you're saying that Eowyn is a sort of gender-role-reversed Petrarchan lover?

I never considered that Eowyn might be attracted to Aragorn solely for her own benefit. I always thought more of her than that. My initial impression was that Eowyn's love was akin to the love of Beregond for Faramir. Yes, she loved Aragorn for what he might bring into her life, but it's deeper than that. Aragorn is possessed of enormous gravity and power of will. Not only did he bend the palantir to his will, but he held the "shades of men at his back and his living followers to their road. As Legolas says in The Last Debate, "Even the shades of Men are obedient to his will!", and "In that hour I looked on Aragorn and thought how great and terrible a Lord he might have become in the strength of his will...not for naught does Mordor fear him. But nobler is his spirit than the understanding of Sauron" Of course Eowyn saw that by him she might escape, but there was a deeper love and devotion in her actions.