LotR -- Book 3 - Chapter 06 - The King of the Golden Hall

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Ok, wow, a lot to say about this chapter. Strap in, grab a snack…or just skip it entirely and go do something more productive with your time!

Boromir88 raises the interesting scene in which Aragorn not only refuses to remove Anduril but even puts himself forward over Theoden. B88 read this in a relatively negative light, but I see it as altogether justified. Yes, in his own hall Theoden gets his way, but Aragorn is the heir of Elendil. It’s a remarkable demonstration of his acceptance of his role and identity that he is willing to accept and even promote that claim so forcefully, but I do not think that we need see this as arrogance. B88 goes so far as to compare Aragorn with Sauron but in a bad way: I would maintain this comparison but in a different manner. Just as Gandalf has returned as the “new” Saruman, or Saruman as he was supposed to be, so too is Aragorn, in a loose sense, Sauron as he was supposed to be. What I mean by this is: Sauron wants to rule the West of Middle-earth and Aragorn is the true ruler of the West. Sauron wants Theoden and everyone else to acknowledge his rule when there is no justification for this claim for Aragorn is the rightful ruler. Just as Gandalf has taken on the new identity of ‘the White’ so too is Aragorn claiming as his own the identity as King of the West.

But on to that other far more interesting topic: Éowyn. I am sure that I am not alone in having been waiting for this!! What other character generates more interest and opinion than the Lady of Rohan, except perhaps Gollum…or Boromir…?

From the outset Meduseld is presented as a place in which women are not only important, but almost the primary referent. More specifically, the action of the chapter is grouped and organised around Éowyn. When Aragorn et al enter the Hall one of the first things they notice are the tapestries that depict the history and ‘lore’ of Rohan. Well, who wove these tapestries? It had to have been the women of the Hall, which places them in the interesting position as lore masters, and as the repositories of memory and history. The centrality of women in Meduseld is then made even more concretely visible in our first glimpse of Theoden. Standing behind the throne is Éowyn while Gríma is crouched before it. The situation of the King is manifestly one in which he is ‘trapped’ between these two people: Gríma the lying man and tool of Saruman, and Éowyn the faithful Lady of Rohan. It’s almost a mythic moment in which we see the King as poised between femininity (tradition? Memory? Duty?) and masculinity.

Gríma immediately establishes himself as a man who is against feminine power. One of the first things he ‘accuses’ Gandalf of is of being:

‘in league with the Sorceress of the Golden Wood… It is not to be wondered at: webs of deceit were ever woven in Dwimordene.’

It’s interesting that Gríma is not just against the Lady/femininity but that he expresses this dislike but associating Galadriel with weaving. So we have this scene in which he is surrounded by tapestries woven by women, telling of the past and the tradition that Theoden is in danger of forgetting utterly, and he is accusing women of being creatures who deceive through their weaving (he, in effect, claims that Galadriel is like Shelob: an evil weaver). Ironically, he does this in order to displace onto women and their creative art (which is properly used as preserving and transmitting the past) his own deceptive nature. He’s the one who is lying, but he wants to make it look like it’s Galadriel who is deceptive. Even as he sets himself up as the opponent of women/femininity, he desires to possess the feminine in the same way that Saruman and Sauron want to possess the world: just like his master wants to rule Rohan, so too does Gríma want to ‘take’ Éoywn as his prize. He regards women as objects/treasures.

But what I find most striking in this chapter is that the return of Theoden to power and kingship is marked by the ‘revelation’ of Éowyn:

The woman turned and went slowly into the house. As she passed the doors she turned and looked back. Grave and thoughtful was her glance, as she looked on the king with cool pity in her eyes. Very fair was her face, and her long hair was like a river of gold. Slender and tall she was in her white robe girt with silver; but strong she seemed and stern as steel, a daughter of kings. Thus Aragorn for the first time in the full light of day beheld Éowyn, Lady of Rohan, and thought her fair, fair and cold, like a morning of pale spring that is not yet come to womanhood. And she now was suddenly aware of him: tall heir of kings, wise with many winters, greycloaked, hiding a power that yet she felt. For a moment still as stone she stood, then turning swiftly she was gone.

This is an extremely interesting passage in terms of how it presents Éowyn: or, rather, how it presents her relationships with these powerful men and how they respond/react to her. At the beginning of the passage, Éowyn is presented more as a knight in relation to Theoden than as a lady: she is “strong…and stern as steel, a daughter of kings.” Intriguingly, she is also wearing a silver belt – back in the discussion of the chapter “Farewell to Lorien” davem provided the fascinating nugget of information that silver belts are signs of knighthood. Éowyn doesn’t really ‘become’ a ‘lady’ until Aragorn notices her: “[he] thought her fair, fair and cold, like a morning of pale spring that is not yet come to womanhood”. The even more interesting thing about this is that Aragorn notices Éowyn before she sees him. And when Éowyn does see Aragorn she responds to him in very much the same was as she did to Theoden: as a warrior or knight responding to the King.

So there’s a particular pattern here: Éowyn is presented as a knight to her king Theoden, Aragorn sees her not as a knight but as a lady, and then she looks at Aragorn as a knight looking at a King. Seems to me that the only people responding to Éowyn as a lady – that is, as a feminine, pretty thing that is “fair and cold” – are the men! And despite this (mis)perception she is still very much a knight in her own right. This is recognised at the end of the chapter when she receives a sword and corslet from Theoden who leaves her to rule in his stead, and the last view we have of her is standing guard over Meduseld as the men depart for war.