The Lord of the Rings: The King of the Golden Hall [Part Four]

The Tale

Gandalf asks Theoden if he will listen to him? He has counsel and aid to give, but it is not for those who despair. The wizard points to the high window, where the darkness seems to clear, showing blue sky. Not all is dark. Too long the king has sat in the shadows. Let him come out with Gandalf alone to look abroad and hear his private counsel.

Theoden slowly rises, and with the aid of the young woman by his side walks slowly down the hall. Wormtongue remains lying on the floor. Gandalf calls for the guards to open the doors and tells the lady to leave Theoden with him a while. ‘Go, Eowyn sister-daughter! said the old king. ‘The time for fear is past.’

Before she goes back into the hall she turns and looks back at her uncle with cool pity. She is very beautiful, slender and tall, strong and stern as steel. Aragorn looks upon her for the first time and sees that she is fair, but fair and cold, like a morning of pale spring. And Eowyn notices Aragorn: ‘tall heir of kings, wise with many winters … hiding a power she yet felt. For a moment still as stone she stood, then turning swiftly she was gone.’

‘Now, lord,’ said Gandalf, ‘look out upon your land! Breathe the free air again!’

Bits and Bobs

Not much to comment on from this little snippet. I meant to cover more ground today, but a number of circumstances is making it difficult.

I think what we can really take away from this passage is that Gandalf does not really use magic on Theoden. He may be controlling the weather, using dark and light, to emphasize his words, but he uses nothing more than encouragement, ‘short sharp bracing’ advice to shake Theoden out of his developed dark habit of thinking that had been re-enforced by Wormtongue’s guidance. There is no exorcism as in the Jackson films and not even a spell to restore him here unless you count ‘spell’ in the meaning of ‘news’. What Gandalf is doing here is more in the character of a good psychologist.

We are given our first real introduction to Eowyn (Anglo-Saxon ‘lover of horses’), Theoden’s ‘sister-daughter’ (i.e. his sister’s daughter, or niece). We also see the beginning of her warrior’s journey, and of her attraction to Aragorn and of his awareness of her and her dilemma.

According to The One Wiki to Rule Them All, in earlier versions “The character Éowyn had at first been the daughter of King Théoden. In another version, she had a cousin named Idis, the daughter of the King, who was later removed in the manuscript as her role was eclipsed by Éowyn's. Éowyn was initially intended to marry Aragorn. Tolkien considered that Aragorn loved Éowyn after her death, when she avenged the death of King Théoden. However, he later abandoned the concept, as he considered Aragorn to be "too old and lordly and grim". Éowyn was also once the twin-sister of Éomund.”