F O R T H E O R L I N G A S !
F O R T H E O R L I N G A S !
→ Ride for ruin and the world’s ending

Then without taking counsel or waiting for the approach of the men of the City, he spurred headlong back to the front of the great host, and blew a horn, and cried aloud for the onset. Over the field rang his clear voice calling: ‘Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world’s ending!’ And with that the host began to move. But the Rohirrim sang no more. Death they cried with one voice loud and terrible, and gathering speed like a great tide their battle swept about their fallen king and passed, roaring away southwards.
Eowyn as commentary on gender roles is actually very interesting. She comes from a culture that values prowess in arms and glory in battle above all else, and also restricts war, the thing that grants both, to men.
Her going into battle is a defiance of that restriction, and a cosmically ordained one at that. She, a woman, was destined to be there. Illuvatar had a direct hand in her life.
Her choice to turn from glory in battle and to seek glory as a healer, considered more feminine in this mythos, is a rejection of the patriarchal import her people place on glory through the male province of battle.
What Eowyn Shieldmaiden of Rohan fears most is a cage, and she smashes that cage to bits.
1/3 places: Edoras

And he looked at the slain, recalling their names. Then suddenly he beheld his sister Éowyn as she lay, and he knew her. He stood a moment as a man who is pierced in the midst of a cry by an arrow through the heart.