XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: Taemon@zonnet.nl   
      
   On 31-12-2013 19:40, Paul S. Person wrote:   
   > Then again, there is Eowyn.   
   >   
   > It is pretty clear from the book that nobody in her eored was   
   > surprised to see her, suggesting that she had done this sort of thing   
   > before. No lectures about girls going on adventures here!   
   >   
   > And there is no record, after the fact, of female Rohirrim being in   
   > any way guarded or protected more than they were before, as some have   
   > claimed would have happened had Bilbo been female.   
   >   
   > OTOH, she only recovered from her wounds (specifically, from what,   
   > IIRC, was called the "Black Breath") when she discovered Farimir in   
   > the romantic sense of the word. JRRT's Shield-Maiden of Rohan, Slayer   
   > of the Witch-King, ends up as ... a wife and mother.   
   >   
   > Granted, given her station (wife of the Steward, etc), her "housework"   
   > would presumably have consisted more of supervising the staff than   
   > actually doing anything physical, but still ...   
      
   I never liked the role Eowyn got to play. She's the only woman who gets   
   to do anything in the book, but she has to dress like a man to do it.   
   And her role is defined solely in relation to the male love interests   
   around her, first as a lovesick girly to Aragorn, then as a "you look   
   good, let's get married"-wife and mother (as you said) to Faramir.   
      
   The Silmarillion is much more rewarding on that front.   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)