The list of ways in which we might be rejected is very long indeed and each of us might make our own. Indeed we might say that the only ones among us who are never rejected are those who never risk themselves. To make a response to rejection is something that almost all of us will have to do at some point in our lives. This will take her to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields at the gates of Minas Tirith. This will be her response to Aragorn’s rejection. She will embrace despair, not as an act of submission, as Bonnivard did in Byron’s poem, but of defiance. She will choose death rather than a cage. Éowyn rejects such counsel, if counsel it be. Aragorn asks her what she fears and she replies, “A cage… To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.” Those who know Byron’s poem, The Prisoner of Chillon, a telling of the story of of the imprisonment of the monk, Bonnivard, in the 16th century, will recall that when, at last, he is set free, he has become so used to his cage, that, we are told, ” I learn’d to love despair.” It is this moment of rejection that brings all the unhappiness of the years of hopelessness to a head. This week I want to remain with the moment of rejection. In the last two weeks, Jennifer Leonard and David Rowe have spoken about Éowyn’s despair, of her desire for death, and of her eventual healing. The two concerns cannot meet and so Aragorn’s leave taking is almost brutal. Éowyn, too, has only one concern, and that is that Aragorn should not leave her behind. Aragorn may be gripped by pain but he will not be swayed from his mission by any concern. Perhaps they might even have considered her to be abducted and their following would have ended in battle. If he had done otherwise then Théoden and Éomer would have been torn between mustering the Rohirrim to try to raise the siege of Minas Tirith and in following her upon the Paths of the Dead. Life has no meaning for her.Īragorn has rejected her, refusing to take her with him on the Paths of the Dead. In speaking to Aragorn she described them as the work of a dry nurse. She may have tasks to perform as the ruler of her people in the absence of the king but these no longer have meaning for her. And so he leaves her, “stood still as a figure carven in stone, her hands clenched at her sides” and she stumbles, as one who is blind, back to her place of lodging.
When Aragorn leads his company away from Edoras towards the Dwimorberg, the haunted mountain, and the Paths of the Dead, he leaves Éowyn behind him, his last words to her nothing more than, “Nay, lady”. This week I would like to offer my own contribution that was prompted by “Middle Hyrule’s” comment on David Rowe’s post entitled “Why Did Éowyn Want to Die?” in which she says,”I thought she wanted to die because Aragorn didn’t love her.” As always I love responding to your comments so please let me know what you think about what I have written.
Both have had a substantial number of readers and I want to thank them both for what they have offered. In the last two weeks Jennifer Leonard ( ) and David Rowe and have offered their reflections on the story of Éowyn of Rohan.