The King of the Golden Hall

• Very fair was her face, and her long hair was like a river of gold. Slender and tall she was in her white robe girt with silver; but strong she seemed and stern as steel, a daughter of kings.
• [Aragorn] thought her fair, fair and cold, like a morning of pale spring that is not yet come to womanhood.
• As she stood before Aragorn she paused suddenly and looked upon him, and her eyes were shining... as he took the cup, his hand met hers, and he knew that she trembled at the touch.
• "Hail Aragorn son of Arathorn!"
• "She is fearless and high-hearted. All love her. Let her be as lord to the Eorlingas, while we are gone."
• Eowyn knelt before [Theoden] and received from him a sword and a fair corslet.
• "A year shall I endure for every day that passes until your return."
• Alone Eowyn stood before the doors of the house at the stair's head; she sword was set upright before her, and her hands were laid upon the hilt. She was clad now in mail and shone like silver in the sun.

The Passing of the Grey Company

• The Lady Eowyn greeted them and was glad of their coming... but on Aragorn most of all her eyes rested.
• "It was kindly done, lord, to ride so many miles out of your way to bring tidings to Eowyn, and to speak with her in her exile."
• "But, Aragorn, is it then your errand to seek death?"
• Then they said no more, and they ate in silence; but her eyes were ever upon Aragorn, and the others saw that she was in great torment of mind.
• He turned and saw her as a glimmer in the night, for she was clad in white; but her eyes were on fire.
• "Aragorn, why will you go on this deadly road?"
• She laid her hand on his arm. "You are a stern lord and resolute," she said; "and thus do men win renown." She paused. "Lord," she said, "if you must go, then let me ride in your following. For I am weary of skulking in the hills, and wish to face peril and battle."
• "Am I not of the House of Eorl, a shieldmaiden and not a dry-nurse? I have waited on faltering feet long enough... may I not spend my life as I will?"
• "All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But... I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death."
• "[I fear] to stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire."
• "I would not see a thing that is high and excellent cast away needlessly."
• "They go only because they would not be parted from thee -- because they love thee." Then she turned and vanished into the night.
• The Lady Eowyn came to bid them farewell. She was clad as a Rider and girt with a sword.
• Then it seemed to Gimli and Legolas who were nearby that she wept, and in one so stern and proud that seemed the more grievous. But she said: "Aragorn, wilt thou go?"
• "Wilt thou not let me ride with this company, as I have asked?"
• Then she fell on her knees, saying: "I beg thee!"
• "Nay, lady," he said, and taking her by the hand he raised her. Then he kissed her hand, and sprang into the saddle, and rode away, and did not look back; and only those who knew him well and were near to him saw the pain that he bore.
• Eowyn stood still as a figure carven in stone, her hands clenched at her sides, and she watched them until they passed into the shadows.
• When they were lost to view, she turned, stumbling as one that is blind, and went back to her lodging.

The Muster of Rohan

• Merry saw that the rider was a woman with long braided hair gleaming in the twilight, yet she wore a helm and was clad to the waist like a warrior and girded with a sword.
• "All is well," she answered; yet it seemed to Merry that her voice belied her, and he would have thought that she had been weeping, if that could be believed of one so stern of face.
• "No, [Aragorn] is gone," said Eowyn, turning away and looking at the mountains dark against the East and South.
• "He came at night, and rode away yestermorn, ere the Sun had climbed over the mountaintops. He is gone."
• "He has passed into the shadow from which none have returned. I could not dissuade him. He is gone."
• "Greatly changed he seemed to me since I saw him first in the king's house," said Eowyn: "grimmer, older. Fey I thought him, and like one whom the Dead call."
• "Come now, Meriadoc!" she said, "I will show you the gear that I have prepared for you... This request only did Aragorn make to me, that you should be armed for battle. I have granted it, as I could. For my heart tells me that you will need such gear ere the end."
• "Take all these things and bear them to good fortune! Farewell now, Master Meriadoc! Yet maybe we shall meet again, you and I."
• One looked up, glancing keenly at the hobbit. A young man... less in height and girth than most. He caught the glint of clear grey eyes; and then he shivered, for it came suddenly to him that it was the face of one without hope who goes in search of death.
• Unnoticed a Rider came up and spoke softly in the hobbit's ear. "Where will wants not, a way opens, so we say," he whispered; "and so I have found myself... You wish to go whither the Lord of the Mark goes: I see it in your face."
• "I will bear you before me, under my cloak... Such good will should not be denied. Say no more to any man, but come!"
• "Do you not [know my name]?" said the Rider softly. "Then call me Dernhelm."

The Ride of the Rohirrim

• Merry noticed that Dernhelm had left his place and in the darkness was moving steadily forward, until at last he was riding just in rear of the king's guard.

The Battle of the Pelennor Fields

• But Theoden was not utterly forsaken. The knights of his house lay slain about him... Yet one stood there still: Dernhelm the young, faithful beyond fear; and he wept, for he had loved his lord as a father.
• "Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace!"
• A sword rang as it was drawn. "Do what you will; but I will hinder it, if I may."
• It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel.
• "But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Eowyn I am, Eomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him!"
• The helm of her secrecy had fallen from her, and her bright hair, released from its bonds, gleamed with pale gold upon her shoulders. Her eyes grey as the sea were hard and fell, and yet tears were on her cheeks. A sword was in her hand, and she raised her shield against the horror of her enemy's eyes.
• Eowyn it was, and Dernhelm also. For into Merry's mind flashed the memory of the face that he saw... the face of one that goes seeking death, having no hope.
• She should not die, so fair, so desperate! At least she should not die alone, unaided.
• She did not blench: maiden of the Rohirrim, child of kings, slender but as a steel-blade, fair yet terrible. A swift stroke she dealt, skilled and deadly... A light fell about her, and her hair shone in the sunrise.
• [The Black Rider] let fall his mace. Her shield was shivered in many pieces, and her arm was broken; she stumbled to her knees. He bent over her like a cloud, and his eyes glittered; he raised his mace to kill.
• "Eowyn! Eowyn!" cried Merry. Then tottering, struggling up, with her last strength she drove her sword between crown and mantle... The sword broke into many sparkling shards. The crown rolled away with a clang. Eowyn fell forward upon her fallen foe.
• "Eowyn! Eowyn!" [Eomer] cried at last. "Eowyn, how come you here? What madness or devilry is this? Death, death, death! Death take us all!"
• "Men of Rohan!" [Imrahil] cried. "...She is hurt, to the death maybe, but I deem that she yet lives!"

The Houses of Healing

• There were many sick of a malady that would not be healed; and they called it the Black Shadow, for it came from the Nazgul... on the Lady of Rohan this malady lay heavily.
• Aragorn came to Eowyn, and he said, "Here there is a grievous hurt and a heavy blow... It was an evil doom that set her in his path. For she is a fair maiden, fairest lady of a house of queens. And yet I know not how I should speak of her. When I first looked on her and perceived her unhappiness, it seemed to me that I saw a white flower standing straight and proud, shapely as a lily, and yet knew that it was hard, as if wrought by elf-wrights out of steel. Or was it, maybe, a frost that had turned its sap to ice, and so it stood, bitter-sweet, still fair to see, but stricken, soon to fall and die? Her malady beings far back before this day, does it not, Eomer?"
• "I knew not that Eowyn, my sister, was touched by any frost, until she first looked on you."
• "My friend," said Gandalf, "you had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free fields; but she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours. Yet she was doomed to wait upon an old man, whom she loved as a father, and watch him falling into a mean dishonoured dotage; and her part seemed to her more ignoble than that of the staff he leaned on."
• "Few other griefs amid the ill chances of this world have more bitterness and shame for a man's heart than to behold the love of a lady so fair and brave that cannot be returned... And yet, Eomer, I say to you that she loves you more truly than me; for you she loves and knows; but in me she loves only a shadow and a thought."
• "She will die, unless other healing comes which I cannot bring. Alas! For her deeds have set her among the queens of great renown."
• Aragorn stooped and looked in her face, and it was indeed white as a lily, cold as frost, and hard as graven stone. But he bent and kissed her on the brow, and called her softly, saying: "Eowyn, Eomund's daughter, awake! For your enemy has passed away."
• "Awake, Eowyn, Lady of Rohan!" said Aragorn again, and he took her right hand in his and felt it warm with life returning... Then he laid her hand in Eomer's and stepped away. "Call her!" he said, and he passed silently from the chamber.
• She opened her eyes and said: "Eomer! What joy is this?"
• "What of the king's esquire, the Halfling? Eomer, you shall make him a knight of the Riddermark, for his is valiant!"
• "To health? It may be so. At least while there is an empty saddle of some fallen Rider that I can fill, and there are deeds to do. But to hope? I do not know."

The Steward and the King

• "I am healed, healed at least in body."
• "It is not always good to be healed in body. Nor is it always evil to die in battle, even in bitter pain. Were I permitted, in this dark hour I would choose the latter."
• "I looked for death in battle. But I have not died, and battle still goes on."
• "I do not desire healing. I wish to ride to war like my brother Eomer, or better like Theoden the king, for he died and has both honour and peace."
• As [Faramir] looked at her it seemed to him that something in her softened, as though a bitter frost were yielding at the first faint presage of Spring.
• "If you will stay in this house in our care, lady, and take your rest, then you shall walk in this garden in the sun, as you will... And here you will find me, walking and waiting, and also looking east. It would ease my care, if you would speak to me, or walk at whiles with me."
• "Eowyn of Rohan, I say to you that you are beautiful... It may be that only a few days are left ere darkness falls upon our world, and when it comes I hope to face it steadily; but it would ease my heart, if while the Sun yet shines, I could see you still. For you and I have both passed under the wings of the Shadow, and the same hand drew us back."
• "Alas, not me, lord! Shadow lies on me still. Look not to me for healing! I am a shieldmaiden and my hand is ungentle."
• The Lady Eowyn wore a great blue mantle of the colour of deep summer-night, and it was set with silver stars about hem and throat. Faramir had sent for this robe and had wrapped it about her; and he thought that she looked fair and queenly indeed as she stood there at his side.
• "I know not what in these days you have found that you could lose... I stand upon some dreadful brink, and it is utterly dark in the abyss before my feet, but whether there is any light behind me I cannot tell. For I cannot turn yet. I wait for some stroke of doom."
• As they stood so, their hands met and clasped, though they did not know it.
• "Then you think that the Darkness is coming?" said Eowyn. "Darkness Unescapable?" And suddenly she drew close to him.
• "No," said Faramir, looking into her face. "...Eowyn, Eowyn, White Lady of Rohan, in this hour I do not believe that any darkness will endure!" And he stooped and kissed her brow.
• And so they stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air.
• "Eowyn, do you not love me, or will you not?"
• "I wished to be loved by another, but I desire no man's pity."
• "I do not offer you my pity. For you are a lady high and valiant and have yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten; and you are a lady beautiful, I deem, beyond even the words of the Elven-tongue to tell. And I love you. Once I pitied your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, were you the blissful Queen of Gondor, still I would love you. Eowyn, do you not love me?"
• Then the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her.
• "Behold! The Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren. No longer do I desire to be a queen."
• Then Faramir laughed merrily. "That is well, for I am not a king. Yet I will wed with the White Lady of Rohan, if it be her will... Let us dwell in fair Ithilien and there make a garden. All things will grow with joy there, if the White Lady comes."
• "Would you have your proud folk say of you: 'There goes a lord who tamed a wild shieldmaiden of the North! Was there no woman of the race of Numenor to choose'?"
• "I would," said Faramir. 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.

Many Partings

• "Faramir, Steward of Gondor, and Prince of Ithilien, asks that Eowyn Lady of Rohan should be his wife, and she grants it full willing."
• "Thus," said Eomer, "is the friendship of the Mark and of Gondor bound with a new bond, and the more do I rejoice."
• "No niggard are you, Eomer," said Aragorn, "to give thus to Gondor the fairest thing in your realm!"
• Then Eowyn looked in the eyes of Aragorn, and she said: "Wish me joy, my liege-lord and healer!"
• And he answered, "I have wished thee joy ever since first I saw thee. It heals my heart to see thee now in bliss."
• "Farewell now, Meriadoc of the Shire and Holdwine of the Mark! Ride to good fortune, and ride back soon to our welcome."
• Then Eowyn gave to Merry an ancient horn... "This is an heirloom of our house."
• He kissed Eowyn's hand; and they embraced him, and so they parted for that time.

Timeline

• 1432 -- Meriadoc becomes Master of Buckland. Great gifts are sent to him by King Eomer and the Lady Eowyn of Ithilien.

Misc

• In The Peoples of Middle-earth, we learn that Faramir and Eowyn had a son named Elboron. Tolkien does not say if they had any other children, though they probably did.
• In the Prologue to LotR, we learn that "The full tale [of Aragorn and Arwen, found in the appendix] is stated to have been written by Barahir, grandson of the Steward Faramir, some time after the passing of the King." Kind of ironic, isn't it?