Éowyn - warrior & healer by daughterofshadows

Éowyn - warrior & healer

The fifth cycle that belongs to my Tolkien's Rockin' Ladies Bingo.

Since this one is very firmly part of Lord of the Rings, I decided to post it separately.

Read Éowyn - warrior & healer

She stands before her mother’s grave, the green burial mound that is her family’s tomb. Her tears have long dried, but Éowyn cannot bring herself to leave.

How will Rohan remember her mother?

Her father died a warrior’s death, her mother of a broken heart.

No one sings songs of the women left behind when the men go off to fight. Instead is their lot to be forgotten by the histories, buried under the glory of men.

Éowyn refuses to let that be her future. When she dies, her life will be remembered. She will stand in no man’s shadow.

 

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She learns the ways of the blade at her cousin’s feet, but it is no battle of swords that tests her mettle.

It is a battle of minds, a battle she loses a bit more every day, as her uncle, her king, slowly slips into senility, his mind poisoned by Saruman, though she does not know it.

Her brother and cousin leave her behind, desperately grasping for something to control as they fight to protect their lands from the dangers lurking everywhere.

In Meduseld, Éowyn grows cold, her heart turning to ice because the pain of losing is too great.

 

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He appears to her like one of the heroes of old, the dawn after a never-ending night. She hopes for salvation he cannot grant.

She is entrusted with the care of her people, unwilling she may be, and when he leaves for the paths of the dead, the night swallows her whole again.

Éowyn rides to the battlefield with no hope in her heart.

She is willing to die. Craves death perhaps because she can perceive no greater glory then dying on the battlefield.

Her life will be a matter of songs, just like she swore on her mother’s grave.

 

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The Witch-king dies to her blade, collapsing in on himself like a puppet whose strings were cut.

Éowyn survives. She does not wish for it, but death is not ready to take her just yet.

Her body recovers.

In the Halls of Healing, she meets another lost soul, and together they navigate the darkness.

Slowly, but surely, she also heals her mind.

A burden shared is a burden halved, after all, and when their kings finally return triumphant, her future path is clear to her.

Éowyn of Rohan is her own saviour, now she learns how to save others, too.

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Chapter End Notes

The prompts were:

Éowyn +

1. On my tombstone when I go

2. Steel in her bones

3. I wanna go out my way

4. Don't need to be saved