Also known as: Dernhelm, White Lady Of Rohan, Lady Of The Shield-Arm, Lady Of Ithilien
Eowyn, daughter of Eomund and Theodwyn and sister of Eomer, was a lady of the royal house of Rohan, the White Lady of the Mark. Raised in the king's hall, she watched in helpless grief as Wormtongue's whispers withered her uncle Theoden, and felt herself caged in a failing court, set only to wait and tend an old man while the men rode to glory; valiant and proud, she dreaded above all a life of small deeds behind walls. She came to love Aragorn, but he could not return that love, and counselled her to her duty.
Bidden to stay behind and govern the people when the king rode to war, Eowyn could not bear it. Disguised as a young rider under the name Dernhelm, she rode in secret to the Pelennor Fields, bearing the hobbit Merry before her upon her horse. There, when the Witch-king of Angmar had struck down Theoden and boasted that no living man might hinder him, she cast off her helm and answered that she was no man, and with Merry's stroke at the wraith's knee she drove her sword into the empty hood and destroyed the Lord of the Nazgul -- so fulfilling the old prophecy. Stricken with the deadly chill of the Black Breath, she was drawn back from death by Aragorn in the Houses of Healing; and there she met Faramir, and found in him a love that turned her from the desire for death and glory toward the healing of hurts and the growing of things. She wedded Faramir and became Lady of Ithilien.