J.R.R. Tolkien's Warrior Woman: Éowyn - Part 4 - Escape

In my previous articles, I introduced Éowyn and examined possible bases for her character and background while illustrating how these concepts parallel those involving women soldiers of the Civil War.  In this piece, I will discuss how these women's dire need for escape from their tumultuous lives ultimately led them to serve clandestinely in military roles.

Escape

 

There were several motivating factors that led women to serve in the military,  including adventure, vengeance, better economic and social opportunities, and a desire to avoid being separated from loved ones in the army.  Some, however, sought entrance into the military in order to escape troubled home lives.

Previously, I revealed that the loss of family members as well as dysfunctional family dynamics hurled these women into an environment of torment.   For some, the solution lay in military service.   There, they would find structure and security they never had at home.  This provided them with a psychological safe haven they desperately needed.   Thus, they were able to escape their cages and heal — at least temporarily.

Following the death of her uncle and caretaker, Elizabeth Quinn 9more commonly known as Frances Hook) caught a train bound for Chicago, leaving behind a life of turmoil.  In the Windy City, she discovered regiments preparing to march south to the war and ultimately joined the 90th Illinois Infantry as "Frank Miller" at the age of sixteen.    Elizabeth also met and allegedly married Jerry Kane with whom she would serve in Chicago's Irish Legion. 

 

While Quinn experienced marriage after leaving, Emma Edmonds departed her home in Michigan to avoid one arranged by her abusive, controlling father.  She expressed the joy in the freedom she discovered in her new life:

“I felt as if an angel had touched me with a live coal from off the altar. I was emancipated.  And I could never again be a slave.”

As "Franklin Thompson," she could take advantage of opportunities denied to her as a woman

and finally make her own decisions, which included enlisting in the 2nd Michigan Infantry.  Though she initially found fulfillment in the military by directly contributing to a cause to which she was loyal, she soon found herself caged again when she — while on duty as a nurse — fell in love with a hospital steward named Jerome Robbins.  In order to alleviate the deep ache she endured in silence, she decided to reveal her secret and the feelings she harbored for him.  And when he did not reciprocate, she sought and received a transfer to another hospital where she fled with her secret intact and her broken heart in order to escape the torment of having to constantly see Jerome.

 You can read more about the background of Elizabeth and Emma by clicking [HERE] and [HERE] for previous blog posts in this series.

Éowyn could certainly sympathize with Emma regarding unrequited love.  

In a post I linked to above, I revealed how the shieldmaiden desired to be accepted as an equal among men. Yet, she was continually rejected.  Downtrodden, she lamented as the Riders of Rohan rode away to battle, "Shall I always be left behind when the Riders depart, to mind the house while they win renown?"  Later, Gandalf the wizard explained her plight to her brother, Éomer, .

 "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."

Women soldiers of the Civil War possessed this same spirit.  They sought adventure and used the military to escape what they deemed to be boring and strict lifestyles where Victorian society called for them to be confined to the domestic sphere.  For example, Lizzie Cook of Iowa attempted to enlist partially out of her "disgust for the monotony of her woman's life."    Jane Short of Illinois enlisted because she was "pining for the excitement of glorious war."   For Rebecca "Georgianna" Peterman of Wisconsin, her "plain country life was not enough for her ambition," and she "wanted to see what war was about."  

And while Éowyn also desired adventure, it was Aragorn's rejection of her love that ultimately propelled her to slip quietly into the host of Riders in disguise as "Dernhelm."   In an earlier version of the manuscript, Tolkien gave her the alias"Grimhelm," but he changed it.  Dernhelm is more fitting because "dern" means "hidden" or "secret" in Anglo-Saxon.  Another change was that Dernhelm was originally a youthful Rider of the king's knights whose place Éowyn took in the ranks.  However, Tolkien transformed "Dernhelm" into merely her alias.   Yet another alteration was that Tolkien originally described her hair as short, specifically that it was "shorn upon her neck."  But in the final version, he allowed her to keep her long tresses.  We learn this when she battles the Witch King.  Tolkien says that "the helm of her secrecy had fallen from her, and her bright hair, released from its bonds, gleamed with pale gold about her shoulders."   Because Éowyn wore a helmet, it was easier for her to get away with having long hair.  This was not the case for women who served as soldiers in the Civil War since they wore hats instead, which exposed their hair length.  Therefore, most cut their locks short to blend in with the men.  But there were a few exceptions.  Click [HERE] to read a blog post I wrote about women soldiers and their hair.

As an aside, Miranda Otto, who portrayed Éowyn in the films, was not the only woman among the Riders of Rohan.  When Peter Jackson issued a casting call for individuals to portray them, a number of women who could ride responded, bringing their own horses with them to the movie set.  So make-up artists applied fake beards to disguise them as men so they could participate.    The next time you watch the movies, see if you can pick them out.   After all, approximately half of Peter Jackson's Riders of Rohan were women.

At the point when Éowyn assumed the disguise of "Dernhelm," despair had consumed her.  When the hobbit, Merry, first saw her as a Rider, he shivered, recognizing in her "the face of one without hope who goes in search of death."   To her, only death could bring relief to her tormented soul.  After meeting her following the Battle of Pelennor Fields, Faramir, observed, 

"You desired to have the love of the Lord Aragorn … but when he gave you only understanding and pity, then you desired to have nothing, unless a brave death in battle."

And so Éowyn had become suicidal.  Events of her life — past and present — had finally pushed her to the precipice.  Others who could also no longer endure their cages joined her there.   One was Marian McKenzie, who went by several female and male aliases, and had multiple stints in the military.  In telling her story to reporters after she was discovered and imprisoned, she informed them that "if she had valued life, she would not have been disposed to have placed herself where she stood a good chance of being killed."  

Soon after making this statement, she hung herself by a make-shift rope she fastened from part of her dress.  However, she was saved and once again exchanged her dress for a uniform as she was soon back serving in the army.

And then there was Mary Ann Clark whose mother perceived that she had been laboring under insanity after enduring an agonizing, abusive marriage.   She escaped into the ranks of what would become the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry (CS) where she would serve for a few months as an officer's orderly, or servant, as "Henry Clark."   However, military officials discovered her and sent her home.   There, she remained for several more months until the death of her dear brother-in-law hurled her back into her emotional abyss.  Rebecca Georgiana Peterman experienced the same grief after returning home from her first stint in the army.  Her sister froze to death after getting lost in a forest near their rural Wisconsin home and falling into a ravine.  In order to escape their emotional cages, both Peterman and Clark once again sought out a place in the army.  When Mary Ann declared her intentions of leaving home forever, her mother tried to stop her.  In writing to friends, she illustrated the change that had come over her child:

"I have admonished her and entreated her but she will not heed! This was not the case once for she was always submissive[,] amiable and kind before this sad sad change[.] Alas how changed the golden flower which diffused its fragrance all around and spread joy and happiness through the day — the circle has withered and fallen — the buoyant spirit drooped and alas one that does not belong to female delicacy has taken its place."

  It seems like something Tolkien himself could have written about Éowyn. 

Mary Ann Clark would not heed her mother.  She left home to seek a place in the army for the second time.  For this stint, she would serve as "Richard Anderson" in the 11th Tennessee Infantry, likely as an orderly as she did in the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry.  In writing friends, Clark asked them to contact her mother:

"Tell her that I never expect to see her again — as I may get killed in battle — there is a battle impending at Vicksburg and I expect to be in it."

Even though Clark did not say that she was looking for death in battle as Éowyn succinctly did, she knew that death could certainly be her fate.  And based on her life experiences and mental state, she probably welcomed it.


While societal expectations and norms held these women in a mental and emotional cage, which they escaped by means of the army, at least one woman found protection in the ranks after fleeing the ultimate form of oppression.  Maria Lewis was a teenage slave girl when she ran away from her master in Virginia and joined the 8th New York Cavalry as "George Harris."  And while most of her comrades failed to detect this light-skinned black woman passing as a white man, there is evidence her officers were not only aware of her presence, but also protected her.


Once these women had escaped their tormented lives and clandestinely entered military service, they performed the same duties as their male counterparts, bore the same hardships, and experienced the horrors of the battlefield.

Click [HERE] for part 5:  experiences as a soldier.