Friday, June 20, 2014

LOTR Read-Along: The Steward and the King (ROTK Ch. 15)

I love this chapter.  Really, really love it.  Even before I started appreciating Faramir more, 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 they healed her of her internal illness.  Folks, this is how you write a believable, non-gooshy love story.  

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.

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).

Possible 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 is that supposed to mean?  Because that's where she was staying when she met Faramir?  

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