Opinion

My first impressions of Eowyn weren't very strong; to be perfectly honest, I simply didn't pay very much attention who wasn't a member of the fellowship and/or a hobbit when I first read through Lord of the Rings, so while Eowyn was cool, she was just sort of..."there" for me. The second time around, I decided to pay more attention to what I missed the first time; so while I still felt major love for the little folk [and in paticular, Pippin], both Eowyn and Faramir made very strong impressions with me.

Eowyn, I think, was a darker character; what I find unique about her is that her despair is not caused by the peril that Middle-earth is in now, but about her place in life and how little she can do to change it. She's a young woman, only in her twenties, and yet she's faced with the knowledge that this is as far as she can go; nothing will ever change, and she's pretty much reached the end of the road - to just be a piece of arm jewelery for whoever happens to be ruling Rohan - "oh, look, a pretty woman who can fight, now let us move on" - and that she'll never get a chance to fight for the land she loves, but only keep the throne war while the men are away.

The War of the Ring only adds to this - her reaction, I see, is not out of concern of herself, but for Rohan, the land that she loves. Despite not being allowed to fight for it, she still loves the land and the people in it - even when Sauron is defeated, Eowyn is still depressed. While she knows that her people and land are safe, she still lacks hope for her own life - for a happy life. And, in the end, she's redeemed by Faramir's love. I found this all terribly interesting, and I found Eowyn a one-of-a-kind character in Lord of the Rings. And she is in no way just a blond bimbo who drools over Aragorn, by the way. Eowyn is an amazing, complex character, and in my opinion, it takes many readings and a lot of speculation and analyzation to fully appreciate who she is!