I love this chapter. Really, really love it. Even before I started appreciating Faramir more the last time I read this, I loved the way he wins Eowyn over. "Then the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her" (p. 943). That is one of the most beautiful love stories ever, to me. He held out love and understanding, and "pity that is the gift of a gentle heart" (p. 943), and those gifts from him healed her of her internal illness. This is how you write a believable, non-gooshy love story, IMHO.
Anyway, then Aragorn and everyone else return, and we get some comic relief out of Ioreth again. I rather wish she was around more, because her commentaries and asides are hilarious. And Aragorn and Arwen get married, which only gets kind of a passing mention -- much less time is spent on them than on Faramir and Eowyn. If you want to know more about them, check out the appendices (at the end of my copy, starting on page 1032, you get Aragorn's whole life-story and how he fell in love with Arwen and their life together later, etc. I assume most editions have this?).
Favorite Lines:
"I am a shieldmaiden and my hand is ungentle" (p. 939).
The days that followed were golden, and Spring and Summer joined and made revel together in the fields of Gondor" (p. 942).
And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many (p. 944).
Discussion Questions:
After she's healed and has fallen in love with Faramir, Eowyn chooses to live in the Houses of Healing until King Eomer returns. She says it has "become to me of all dwellings the most blessed" (p. 944). What do you suppose she means by that? Because that's where she was staying when she met Faramir? Or because now she's capable of being healed, maybe? Or something else?
What do you think of the love story of Faramir and Eowyn? Did you kind of see it coming, or was it a bit of a surprise?
I don't remember anymore what I thought of the love story of Faramir and Eowyn when I first saw the movie (because, yes, I saw the movies before I read the books....)
ReplyDeleteNow, it just feels very right to me!
I saw the movies first too, Birdie. I think I actually didn't care a whole lot the first time through, as I wasn't terribly invested in either of them at that point.
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