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((short description|Role of women in Tolkien's fantasy))
((good article))
((Italic title|string=The Lord of the Rings))
((Use British English|date=May 2021))
((Use dmy dates|date=January 2024))
[[File:Arwen by Anna Kulisz.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Some commentators describe [[J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkien]] as placing women only in background roles while the male protagonists see all the action.<ref name="Wood 2003"/> ''[[Arwen]] sewing [[Aragorn]]'s banner'', by Anna Kulisz, 2015, inspired by [[Edmund Leighton]]'s 1911 ''[[Stitching the Standard]]''.]]

The roles of '''women in ''The Lord of the Rings''''' have often been assessed as insignificant, or important only in relation to male characters in a story about men for boys. Meanwhile, other commentators have noted the [[women's empowerment|empowerment]] of the three major women characters, [[Galadriel]], [[Éowyn]], and [[Arwen]], and provided in-depth analysis of their roles within the narrative of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.

Weronika Łaszkiewicz has written that "Tolkien's heroines have been both praised and severely criticized",<ref name="Łaszkiewicz 2015"/> and that his fictional women have [[Tolkien's ambiguity|an ambiguous image]], of "both passivity and empowerment".<ref name="Łaszkiewicz 2015"/> [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] spent much of his life in an all-male environment, and had conservative views about women, prompting discussion of possible [[sexism]]. Much of the action in ''The Lord of the Rings'' is by male characters, and the nine-person Fellowship of the Ring is entirely male.

On the other hand, commentators have noted that the [[Elves in Middle-earth|Elf]]-queen Galadriel is powerful and wise; Éowyn, noblewoman of [[Rohan (Middle-earth)|Rohan]], is extraordinarily courageous, killing the leader of the [[Nazgûl]]; the [[Elf]] Arwen, who chooses mortality to be with [[Aragorn]], the man she loves, is central to [[Themes of The Lord of the Rings#Death and immortality|the book's theme of death and immortality]]; and that other female figures like the monstrous spider [[Shelob]] and the wise-woman of Gondor, Ioreth, play important roles in the narrative. Tolkien stated that the [[Hobbit]] woman Rosie Cotton is "absolutely essential" to understanding the hero [[Sam Gamgee|Sam]]'s character, and the relation of ordinary life to heroism.<ref name="Letter 131" group=T/>

== Tolkien's background==
((further|J. R. R. Tolkien))
[[File:Pembroke College quad.jpg|thumb|Secluded male environment:<ref name="Łaszkiewicz 2015"/> [[Pembroke College, Oxford|Pembroke College]]'s Old Quad, where Tolkien had his teaching rooms]]

The author of the bestselling fantasy novel ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'',<!--<ref name="Chance 1980">((cite book |chapter=The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien's Epic |title=Tolkien's Art: A Mythology for England |author=Jane Chance |author-link=Jane Chance |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |year=1980 |orig-year=1979 |isbn=0333290348 |pp=97–127))</ref>--><ref name="Wagner 2007">((cite web |first=Vit |last=Wagner |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/203389 |title=Tolkien proves he's still the king |newspaper=[[Toronto Star]] |date=16 April 2007 |access-date=8 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110309035210/http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/203389 |archive-date=9 March 2011))</ref> [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], was orphaned as a boy, his father dying in South Africa and his mother in England a few years later. He was brought up by his guardian, a [[Catholic priest]], [[Francis Xavier Morgan|Father Francis Xavier Morgan]], and educated at boys' [[grammar school]]s and then [[Exeter College, Oxford]], which at that time had only male students. He joined the [[British Army]]'s [[Lancashire Fusiliers]] and saw the horror of [[trench warfare]], with life as an officer made more bearable by the support of a male [[Batman (military)|batman]] or servant. After the war he became a professor of English Language at the [[University of Leeds]], and then at the [[University of Oxford]], where he taught at [[Pembroke College, Oxford|Pembroke College]].<ref name="Carpenter 1978">((cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Humphrey |author-link=Humphrey Carpenter |year=1978 |orig-year=1977 |title=Tolkien: A Biography |publisher=[[George Allen and Unwin|Unwin]] |isbn=0-04-928039-2 |pages=24, 38, 39, 41, 60, 80, 89, 91, 114–115, 122 |url=https://archive.org/details/jrrtolkien00hump))</ref> At Oxford, he created an all-male literary group with another Oxford professor of English, [[C. S. Lewis]], called [[the Inklings]].<ref name="Hatcher 2007"/>

Among [[J. R. R. Tolkien's influences|Tolkien's influences]], he stated that he enjoyed reading boys' [[adventure story|adventure stories]], such as those by [[H. Rider Haggard]] and [[John Buchan]]. Tolkien stated in an interview that Haggard's novel ''[[She (novel)|She]]'' was his favourite. The scholar of English literature Dale Nelson notes that Tolkien "was evidently spontaneously moved by [[Mythopoeia|mythopoeic]] and straightforward adventure romance"<ref name="Nelson 2013"/> as in Haggard's books. On Buchan's influence, Nelson writes that ''[[Greenmantle]]'' tells "of desperate chances and plentiful good luck, of cross-country pursuit and massive battles ... [and] the heroism of a handful of men".<ref name="Nelson 2013">((cite encyclopedia |last=Nelson |first=Dale |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Literary Influences, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries |encyclopedia=[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-86511-1 |pages=366–377 ))</ref><ref>((cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Humphrey |author-link=Humphrey Carpenter |title=J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography |year=2000 |orig-year=1977 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |isbn=978-0-61805702-3 |page=168 |url=https://archive.org/details/jrrtolkien00hump))</ref><ref>((cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century]] |year=2000 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=0-261-10400-4 |pages=127, 347–348 ))</ref> In ''[[On Fairy Stories]]'', Tolkien wrote that "''[[Treasure Island]]'' left me cool. [[wikt:Red Indians|Red Indians]] were better: there were bows and arrows ..., and strange languages, and glimpses of an archaic way of life, and, above all, forests in such stories. But the land of Merlin and Arthur((efn|[[Arthurian legend]], retold in modern works such as [[Alfred Tennyson]]'s ''[[The Lady of Shalott]]'' and ''[[Galahad#Tennyson|Galahad]]''.)) was better than these, and best of all the nameless North of Sigurd and the Volsungs,((efn|[[Norse saga]], retold in [[William Morris]]'s 1876 ''[[The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs]]''.)) and the prince of all dragons. Such lands were pre-eminently desirable."<ref group=T>((cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |chapter=[[On Fairy-Stories]] |title=[[Tree and Leaf]] |date=1964 |publisher=[[George Allen & Unwin]] |page=39 |oclc=247412364))</ref>

As seen in a letter to his son [[Michael Tolkien]], he held conservative views about women, stating that men were active in their professions while women were inclined to domestic life.<ref name="Letter 43" group=T>((harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#43 to Michael Tolkien, 6–8 March 1941 ))</ref> While defending the role of women in ''The Lord of the Rings'', the scholar of [[children's literature]] Melissa Hatcher wrote that "Tolkien himself, in reality, probably was the stodgy sexist Oxford professor that feminist scholars paint him out to be".<ref name="Hatcher 2007"/>

== Roles for women ==

=== A story about men for boys ===
((further|Sexuality in The Lord of the Rings))

''The Lord of the Rings'' has repeatedly been discussed as being a story about men for boys, with no significant women characters;<ref name="Wood 2003">((cite book |last=Wood |first=Ralph C. |author-link=Ralph C. Wood |title=The Gospel According to Tolkien |url=https://archive.org/details/gospelaccordingt00wood |url-access=registration |year=2003 |publisher=[[Westminster John Knox Press]] |isbn=978-0-664-23466-9 |pages=2–4))</ref>((sfn|Croft|Donovan|2015|loc=Introduction)) there are 11 women in the work, some of them mentioned only briefly.<ref name="Łaszkiewicz 2015"/> [[Catharine R. Stimpson|Catherine Stimpson]], a scholar of English and feminism, wrote that Tolkien's women were "hackneyed ... stereotypes ... either beautiful and distant, simply distant, or simply simple".<ref name="Stimpson 1969">((cite book | last=Stimpson | first=Catharine |author-link=Catharine R. Stimpson | title=J.R.R. Tolkien |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |year=1969 |isbn=978-0-231-03207-0 |oclc=24122 |page=18 |url=https://archive.org/details/jrrtolkien00stim))</ref>

Robert Butler and John Eberhard, in the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', stated that all the races from [[Hobbit]]s to [[Elf (Middle-earth)|Elves]], Dwarves to [[Wizards (Middle-earth)|Wizards]], get their due in the novel, but "Women, on the other hand, do not."<ref name="Chicago Tribune 2002">((cite news |last1=Butler |first1=Robert W. |last2=Eberhart |first2=John Mark |title=In Tolkien, it's a man's world, and with good reason |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-01-01-0201010249-story.html |access-date=21 July 2020 |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=1 January 2002))</ref> In their view, "Tolkien didn't think much about the female sex. Yes, he was happily married, and yes, he did have a daughter. But his wife, Edith Mary, and daughter, Priscilla, seemed to have practically no influence on his writing."<ref name="Chicago Tribune 2002"/> They quoted the scholar of medieval and [[Old English literature]], Linda Voigts, as defending Tolkien, pointing out that, brought up in a male world and living among male scholars at a time when "Oxford was a boys' club",<ref name="Chicago Tribune 2002"/> he could not have been expected to be a modern feminist.<ref name="Chicago Tribune 2002"/> Butler and Eberhard wrote that the women in the novel see little action, giving the example of [[Arwen]]. In their opinion, a strong-willed woman, [[Éowyn]], was created when the teenaged Priscilla asked her father for a female character.<ref name="Chicago Tribune 2002"/>

The critics Candice Fredrick and Sam McBride, referencing the all-male Inklings group, wrote that "Middle-earth is very Inkling-like, in that while women exist in the world, they need not be given significant attention and can, if one is lucky, simply be avoided altogether."<ref name="Fredrick McBride 2001">((cite book |last1=Fredrick |first1=Candice |last2=McBride |first2=Sam |title=Women Among the Inklings: Gender, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams |date=2001 |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |isbn=978-0313312458 |page=108 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OeNZAAAAMAAJ&q=Women+Among+the+Inklings))</ref> Melissa McCrory Hatcher, while not discounting the women altogether, writes that [[#Hobbit women|Hobbit women]] like Rosie Cotton and Lobelia Sackville-Baggins serve "only as housewives or shrews", [[Dwarf (Middle-earth)|Dwarf]] women are hardly feminine, the [[Ent]]wives are lost, and [[Goldberry]] "is a mystical washer-woman".<ref name="Hatcher 2007"/>

=== Few but powerful women ===

The Tolkien scholars Carol Leibiger, in the ''[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]]'', and separately Maureen Thum, replied that Stimpson's charge was definitely disproven by Tolkien's vigorous characterisation of [[Éowyn]] (and in ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' by numerous strong female characters such as [[Lúthien]]).<ref name="Leibiger 2013">((cite encyclopedia |last=Leibiger |first=Carol A. |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Women in Tolkien's Works |encyclopedia=[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-86511-1 |pages=710–712))</ref><ref>((cite book |last=Thum |first=Maureen |chapter=The 'Sub-Subcreation' of Galadriel, Arwen, and Éowyn: Women of Power in Tolkien's and Jackson's ''The Lord of the Rings'' |editor-last=Croft |editor-first=Janet Brennan |editor-link=Janet Brennan Croft |title=Tolkien on Film: Essays on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings |publisher=[[Mythopoeic Society|Mythopoeic Press]] |year=2004 |pages=231–256 |isbn=978-1887726092 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=irckAQAAMAAJ&q=thum))</ref> Liebiger stated that while Tolkien's female characters appear like "chaste medieval ladies of [[courtly romance]]", doing little but encouraging their menfolk to be heroic, the few prominent women in the narrative are in fact extremely powerful in their own right.<ref name="Leibiger 2013"/>

The [[theologian]] Ralph Wood replied that [[Galadriel]], Éowyn, and Arwen are far from being "plaster figures": Galadriel is powerful, wise and "terrible in her beauty"; Éowyn has "extraordinary courage and valor"; and Arwen gives up her Elvish immortality to marry Aragorn. Further, Wood argued, Tolkien insisted that everyone, man and woman alike, faces the same kinds of temptation, hope, and desire.<ref name="Wood 2003"/>

The scholar of English literature Nancy Enright stated that the few female characters in ''The Lord of the Rings'' are extremely important in defining power, which she suggests is a central theme of the novel. She commented that even the apparently heroic male figures such as [[Aragorn]] and [[Faramir]] "use traditional masculine power in a manner tempered with an awareness of its limitations and a respect for another, deeper kind of power".<ref name="Enright 2007">((cite journal |last=Enright |first=Nancy |title=Tolkien's Females and the Defining of Power |journal=[[Renascence (journal)|Renascence]] |volume=59 |issue=2 |year=2007 |pages=93–108 |issn=0034-4346 |doi=10.5840/renascence200759213 |url=https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-161502024/tolkien-s-females-and-the-defining-of-power |url-access=subscription))</ref> She argued that Faramir's brother [[Boromir]], who fits the picture of the powerful male warrior hero, is in fact "weaker morally and spiritually"<ref name="Enright 2007"/> than those 
who exercise the deeper kind of power, and noted that Boromir falls while the "less typically heroic characters",<ref name="Enright 2007"/> including all the women (and the apparently unheroic Hobbits) survive.<ref name="Enright 2007"/> She specifically denied that the absence of women in battle, Éowyn excepted, and among the nine members of the [[Fellowship of the Ring (characters)|Fellowship of the Ring]], meant that female power and presence are not important in the novel.<ref name="Enright 2007"/> On the contrary, she wrote, the women embody Tolkien's critique of the conventional view of power, and illustrate his Christian view that selfless love is stronger than selfish pride and any attempt to dominate by force.<ref name="Enright 2007"/> Liebiger noted that Tolkien's attitude towards destructive masculine power is "compatible with that of contemporary feminists".<ref name="Leibiger 2013"/>

Weronika Łaszkiewicz noted that "Tolkien's heroines have been both praised and severely criticized",<ref name="Łaszkiewicz 2015">((cite journal |last=Łaszkiewicz |first=Weronika |title=J.R.R. Tolkien's Portrayal of Femininity and Its Transformations in Subsequent Adaptations |journal=Crossroads: A Journal of English Studies |issue=4 |year=2015 |volume=11 |pages=15–28 |issn=2300-6250 |doi=10.15290/cr.2015.11.4.02|doi-access=free ))</ref> stating that his fictional women have [[Tolkien's ambiguity|an ambiguous image]], of "both passivity and empowerment".<ref name="Łaszkiewicz 2015"/> She suggested that this could be a result of his personal experience. Firstly, women in early 20th century England normally stayed at home and looked after the children, she noted, and Tolkien expected as much of his wife Edith, even though she was a skilful pianist. Secondly, his environment was overwhelmingly male, and other Inklings, especially Lewis, believed that "full intimacy with another man was impossible unless women were totally excluded" from their intellectual and artistic discussions; Łaszkiewicz notes that Edith resented the Inklings meetings.<ref name="Łaszkiewicz 2015"/><ref>((cite book |last=Partridge |first=Brenda |year=1983 |chapter=No Sex Please—We're Hobbits: The Construction of Female Sexuality in ''The Lord of the Rings'' |editor-last=Giddings |editor-first=Robert |title=J.R.R. Tolkien: This Far Land |pages=179–197 |publisher=Vision and [[Barnes & Noble]] |isbn=978-0-3892-0374-2 |url=http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/documents/articles/No%20Sex%20Please.pdf))</ref>

The scholar of humanities [[Brian Rosebury]] wrote that Tolkien gave his mother's memory "something of the [[numinous]] intensity which radiates from the adored, benevolent, intimately present or achingly distant, feminine figures of his work",<ref name="Rosebury 2003">((cite book |last=Rosebury |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Rosebury |title=Tolkien : A Cultural Phenomenon |date=2003 |orig-year=1992 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan|Palgrave]] |isbn=978-1403-91263-3 |pages=137–138))</ref> naming Galadriel, Arwen, Goldberry and the remote Varda/[[Elbereth]]. He adds that the differing interests of Tolkien and his wife Edith may be "dimly discernible" in the estrangement of the Ents and the Entwives, while their long-delayed romance is evident in [[Elrond]] (as Father Francis Xavier, Tolkien's guardian), who forbids Aragorn to marry Arwen unless he becomes king of [[Gondor]] and Arnor. He notes that the delayed marriage of the servant-hobbit [[Samwise Gamgee|Samwise "Sam" Gamgee]] and Rosie Cotton is a homelier echo of the theme.<ref name="Rosebury 2003"/>

=== A diverse roster ===
The female hobbit characters in ''The Lord of the Rings'' all have limited roles.<ref name="Nepveu 2010 The Houses of Healing"/><ref name="Nepveu 2010 The Steward and the King"/> They include Rosie Cotton, Sam's fiancé; Rosie's mother Mrs Cotton; Mrs Maggot, the wife of [[Farmer Maggot]] who assisted Frodo's departure from [[The Shire]]; and Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, the wife of [[Bilbo Baggins]]'s cousin, who covets his [[Bag End]] residence and his collection of silver spoons.<ref name="Nepveu 2010 The Steward and the King"/> In the ''[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]]'', Katherine Hasser observed a lack of role-separation between male and female Shire-folk, as several men perform domestic duties such as cooking, cleaning, arranging parties, purchasing and wrapping gifts; Bilbo in particular adopts and nurtures the young Frodo by himself.<ref name="Hasser 2013"/>

Leslie A. Donovan writes that because there are rather few women in the book, feminist commentators such as Lisa Hopkins have argued that the scarce women are strong, authoritative, and disproportionately important to the narrative. Donovan calls this "the [[Valkyrie]] reflex", and argues against it, not least with the hobbit women. Lobelia "may be valkyrie-like, but her greediness and covetousness early in the texts are not common valkyrie traits", while "Rosie Cotton's teasing of Sam" is at best "vaguely reminiscent" of a valkyrie inciter, but "her wholesome ordinariness has no relationship to Odin's battle goddesses".((sfn|Croft|Donovan|2015|loc="The Valkyrie Reflex", pages 221–257))

Ann Basso wrote in ''[[Mythlore]]'' that all the women in ''The Lord of the Rings'' are either noble or ethereal like Éowyn and Galadriel, or simple rustics like Rosie, with one exception: [[Goldberry]], the River-woman's daughter, wife of [[Tom Bombadil]], who appears as a biblical [[Eve]] figure to Galadriel's [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]]. In her view, the "roster of women" are "rich and diverse [characters], well drawn, and worthy of respect".<ref name="Basso 2008">((cite journal |last=Basso |first=Ann McCauley |year=2008 |title=Fair Lady Goldberry, Daughter of the River |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=27 |issue=1 |at=article 12 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol27/iss1/12))</ref> Hasser considered the most significant point about Goldberry's depiction as a feminine figure is that she shares domestic duties with her husband, and appears equal to him in status.<ref name="Hasser 2013">((cite encyclopedia |last=Hasser |first=Katherine |title=Goldberry |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |encyclopedia=[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2006 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-1358-8033-0 |pages=245–246))</ref>

=== Mediating between epic fantasy and the reader's world ===

Commentators such as Megan N. Fontenot, [[Fleming Rutledge]] the theologian and [[Episcopal priest]], and indeed Tolkien, have stated that the ordinary women, such as Rosie and the prattling woman of Gondor, Ioreth, have the vital role of mediating between the world of epic fantasy and ordinary life.<ref name="Letter 131" group=T/><ref name="Fontenot 2021 Rosie"/> Rosie's warm relationship with Sam allows readers to connect to Sam's heroic adventures, and in turn to the noble characters such as [[Aragorn]] that Sam encounters.<ref name="Fontenot 2021 Rosie"/> Ioreth's transformation of the heroic events of the War of the Ring into stories she can tell to her country relative shows how actual events turn first into shared stories and then into epic. This allows the reader to see the narrative in ''The Lord of the Rings'' as the result of the inevitable changes wrought by the passage of time as [[Middle-earth#History|Middle-earth in the distant past]] changes into the present-day Earth.<ref name="Rutledge 2004 p305"/>

== The powerful women ==

=== Galadriel ===
((further|Galadriel))
[[File:Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus]]'' by [[John William Waterhouse]], 1891: [[Galadriel]]'s support of the [[Fellowship of the Ring (characters)|Fellowship of the Ring]] has been compared to that of [[Circe]] and [[Calypso (mythology)|Calypso]] for [[Odysseus]] in [[Homer]]'s epic.<ref name="Fenwick 1996"/> ]]

<!--==== All-seeing ====-->
The Elf-queen Galadriel, Lady of [[Lothlórien]], is the most powerful female character in Middle-earth during the Third Age.<ref name="Leibiger 2013"/> Tolkien portrays her as all-seeing, able to read people's thoughts.<ref name="Hatcher 2007"/> She uses this power to test the loyalty of each of the Fellowship in turn; David Craig, writing in ''[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]]'', comments that Tolkien would not have had a man do this, so it is "a gendered moment".<ref name="Leibiger 2013"/><ref>((cite journal |last=Craig |first=David M. |title='Queer Lodgings': Gender and Sexuality in ''The Lord of the Rings'' |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |issue=38 |year=2001 |pages=11–18))</ref> She gives each of the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring a personal gift, chosen to assist them with the quest to destroy the One Ring, and with their personal journeys, as with her gift to Sam the gardener of a box of earth to restore the fertility of his garden, the Shire.<ref name="Hatcher 2007"/>

<!--==== Homeric ====-->
Mac Fenwick compares Galadriel and what he sees as her monstrous opposite, the giant and evil spider [[Shelob]], with the struggle between the good and the monstrous female characters in [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]''. Like Galadriel, [[Circe]] and [[Calypso (mythology)|Calypso]] are rulers of their own secluded magical realms, and both offer help and advice to the protagonist. They help [[Odysseus]] to avoid destruction by the female monsters, the [[Siren (mythology)|Sirens]] who would lure his ship on to the rocks, and [[Scylla and Charybdis]] who would smash or drown his ship; Galadriel gives Frodo the [[Phial of Galadriel]], which by her power contains the captured light of [[Eärendil]]'s star that shines in the darkness and is capable of blinding and warding off the threat of Shelob, an embodiment of darkness who is forever opposed to the light of the Elves.<ref name="Lionarons 2013">((cite journal |last=Lionarons |first=Joyce Tally |title=Of Spiders and Elves |journal=[[Mythlore]] |date=2013 |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=5–13 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol31/iss3/2))</ref><ref name="Bassham Bronson 2013">((cite book |last1=Bassham |first1=Gregory |last2=Bronson |first2=Eric |title=The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dw-NAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 |year=2013 |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court]] |isbn=978-0-8126-9806-0 |page=35))</ref><ref name="Grant 1973">((cite journal |last=Grant |first=Patrick |title=Tolkien: Archetype and Word |journal=Cross Currents |date=1973 |issue=Winter 1973 |pages=365–380 |url=https://crosscurrents.org/tolkien.htm#_ednref9))</ref>
Galadriel's gifts, too, are Homeric, including cloaks, food, and wisdom as well as light, just like those of Circe and Calypso.<ref name="Fenwick 1996">((cite journal |last=Fenwick |first=Mac |year=1996 |title=Breastplates of Silk: Homeric Women in The Lord of the Rings |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=21 |issue=3 |at=article 4 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol21/iss3/4))</ref>

<!--==== Masked power ====-->
The scholar of English literature Maureen Thum describes Galadriel's masked power. She appears conventionally as a romantic medieval heroine in a garden, gives suitably medieval gifts, is admired from afar. But far from being imprisoned in her garden, she rules her realm and all who enter it "feel the power of the Lady".<ref name="Lothlórien" group=T>((harvnb|Tolkien|1954a)), book 2 ch. 6 "Lothlórien"</ref> At the end of the book, the reader discovers that she is the bearer of [[Nenya]], the Ring of Adamant, one of the three Elven-Rings, explaining her power to conceal and protect [[Lothlórien]] from the Dark Lord's gaze.((sfn|Croft|Donovan|2015|loc="Hidden in Plain View", pages 281–305)) [[Wayne G. Hammond]] and [[Christina Scull]] observe that "Adamant" means both a type of hard stone, and "stubbornly resolute", a description that well suits the quality of Galadriel's resistance to [[Sauron]].<ref>((cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |author1-link=Wayne G. Hammond |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |author2-link=Christina Scull |title=The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion |title-link=The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] | year=2005 |isbn=978-0-00-720907-1 |page=324))</ref>

<!--==== Arthurian? ====-->
Scholars including [[Marjorie Burns]] and Sharin Schroeder have compared and contrasted Galadriel with Ayesha, the powerful and beautiful eponymous heroine of [[Rider Haggard]]'s 1887 [[Lost World (genre)|lost world]] adventure fantasy ''[[She: A History of Adventure]]''. Burns points out numerous similarities between Galadriel, Ayesha, and the [[Arthurian legend|Arthurian]] [[Lady of Shalott]]. Both scholars note however that whereas Ayesha overreaches her power and perishes on re-entering the immortal flame, Galadriel understands that she cannot wield the One Ring, though Frodo offers it to her freely; she helps the quest to destroy it, and accepts the diminution of her power and the fading of her realm that result. Schroeder observes that where Ayesha is capricious, enjoying male admiration, Galadriel is serious, testing the members of the Fellowship for loyalty. Schroeder notes that Galadriel is self-aware, knowing that "she is as fallible as they are", and as much in need of testing: and indeed accepts Frodo's testing.<ref name="Burns 2005">((cite book |last=Burns |first=Marjorie |author-link=Marjorie Burns |title=Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth |title-link=Perilous Realms |year=2005 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |location=Toronto, Ontario, Canada |isbn=978-0-8020-3806-7 |pages=114–116, footnote 33 (page 194)))</ref>((sfn|Croft|Donovan|2015|loc="She-who-must-not-be-ignored", pages 70–96))

=== Éowyn ===
((further|Éowyn))

<!--==== Masks ====-->
[[File:Peter Nicolai Arbo-Hervors død.jpg|thumb|Éowyn's appearance on the Pelennor Fields has been compared to that of the shieldmaiden [[Hervor]] in the "[[Hlöðskviða|Battle of the Goths and Huns]]", as depicted in ''Hervor's Death'' by [[Peter Nicolai Arbo]].<ref name="Young 2015">((cite book |last=Young |first=Helen |title=Fantasy and Science Fiction Medievalisms: From Isaac Asimov to A Game of Thrones |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nSg_CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT55 |year=2015 |publisher=Cambria Press |isbn=978-1-62196-747-7 |page=55, note 37 |quote=The gender-role inversion in Arbo's painting does not last for long: later in the film, Éowyn takes the same position as the shield maiden Hervor in the painting, lying on a field strewn with dead bodies, where her brother, Éomer, finds her. The colors in Arbo's painting are the golds, reds, yellows, and blues found in Rohan in the film, down to the white of the steed that, in the painting, has survived its rider.))</ref>]]

Thum states that Éowyn wears in turn two masks, the first unconventional, the second conventional.((sfn|Croft|Donovan|2015|loc="Hidden in Plain View", pages 281–305)) She appears initially as a medieval romance heroine, a "woman clad in white",<ref name="King of the Golden Hall" group=T>((harvnb|Tolkien|1954)), book 3, ch. 6 "The King of the Golden Hall"</ref> standing silent and obedient behind King [[Théoden]]'s throne. But soon it becomes clear that she is no meek subordinate, as "she looked on the king with cool pity in her eyes":<ref name="King of the Golden Hall" group=T/> she thinks for herself. Further, she appears conventionally beautiful as a romance lady: "Very fair was her face, and her long hair was like a river of gold."<ref name="King of the Golden Hall" group=T/> But, Thum writes, this too is swiftly gainsaid: "Slender and tall she was ... but strong she seemed and stern as steel, a daughter of kings."<ref name="King of the Golden Hall" group=T/> Éowyn's second mask is the appearance of a male [[Riders of Rohan|Rider of Rohan]], "Dernhelm", as, against orders, she rides to battle.<ref name="Muster of Rohan" group=T>((harvnb|Tolkien|1955)), book 5, ch. 3 "The Muster of Rohan"</ref>((sfn|Croft|Donovan|2015|loc="Hidden in Plain View", pages 281–305)) In [[Old English]] ''dern'' means "secret, concealed", while ''helm'' is "helmet", a covering for the head.<ref>((cite book |last=Clark Hall |first=J. R. |author-link=John Richard Clark Hall |title=A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary |date=2002 |orig-year=1894 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |edition=4th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ufdQAQAAMAAJ |pages=85 ''dierne'', "hidden, secret"; 177 ''helm'', "defence, helmet"))</ref> Thum comments that this unconventional mask conveys Éowyn's rebellious nature far more powerfully than would any overt account of her thinking.((sfn|Croft|Donovan|2015|loc="Hidden in Plain View", pages 281–305))

<!--==== Classic woman warrior ====-->
Jessica Yates wrote that Éowyn meets all the requirements for a classic [[Women warriors in literature and culture|woman warrior]]: a strong identity; skill in fighting; weapons and armour; a horse; special powers, seen when she turns the Ringwraith's prophecy of doom back onto him; and being modest and chaste.<ref name="Hatcher 2007"/><ref>((cite journal |last=Yates |first=Jessica |title=Arwen the Elf Warrior? |journal=[[Amon Hen (journal)|Amon Hen]] |issue=165 (September 2000) |year=2000 |pages=11–15))</ref> Leibiger added that Éowyn is the only strong human female in ''The Lord of the Rings'' (Galadriel and Arwen being Elves), noting that her rejection of the woman's place in the home leads her to fulfil the prophecy about the leader of the Ringwraiths, the Witch-King of Angmar, that "not by the hand of man will [he] fall".<ref name="Leibiger 2013"/>

<!--==== Fierce commitment to peace ====-->
Melissa Hatcher wrote in ''[[Mythlore]]'' that ''The Lord of the Rings'' has as a central theme the way that "the littlest person, a hobbit, overcom[es] the tides of war": that the real power is that of healing, protecting, and preserving.<ref name="Hatcher 2007">((cite journal |last=Hatcher |first=Melissa McCrory |year=2007 |title=Finding Woman's Role in The Lord of the Rings |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=25 |issue=3 |at=article 5 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol25/iss3/5))</ref> She noted that Éowyn tries the path of the warrior and then becomes a healer, and that some academics have interpreted her choice as weak submission. Hatcher stated that instead, Éowyn is following Tolkien's "highest ideal: a fierce commitment to peace", embodying the "full-blooded subjectivity" that Tolkien believed necessary for peace.<ref name="Hatcher 2007"/> She described Éowyn as "a complete individual who fulfills Tolkien's theme of peace, preservation, and cultural memory."<ref name="Hatcher 2007"/>

<!--==== All six ingredients of happiness ====-->
Hatcher cited the philosopher Gregory Bassham's list of the six essential ingredients of happiness in Middle-earth, namely "delight in simple things, making light of one's troubles, getting personal, cultivating good character, cherishing and creating beauty, and rediscovering wonder", and stated that these are all seen in Éowyn and the Hobbit Sam, the gardener who inherits Frodo's Bag End and restores [[the Shire]], "but in very few others".<ref name="Hatcher 2007"/><ref>(( cite book |last=Bassham |first=Gregory |chapter=Tolkien's Six Keys to Happiness |title=The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy |editor1-last=Bassham |editor1-first=Gregory |editor2-last=Bronson |editor2-first=Eric |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0812695458 |pages=49–60 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6132584))</ref>

=== Arwen ===
((further|Arwen|The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen))

[[File:The Rescue of Guinevere.jpg|thumb|Arwen has been compared to a lady in medieval romance.<ref name="Flieger 2004"/> ''The Rescue of Guinevere'' by [[William Hatherell]], 1910.]]

Arwen is depicted as extremely beautiful; she is in Hatcher's view "a symbol of the unattainable, a perfect match for the unattainable Aragorn in Éowyn's eyes."<ref name="Hatcher 2007"/> Leibiger wrote that Arwen's lack of involvement follows the general Elvish pattern of retreating to safe havens already established in ''The Silmarillion'' and continued in ''The Lord of the Rings''.<ref name="Leibiger 2013"/>

Enright wrote that Arwen, like [[Christ]], is [[Themes of The Lord of the Rings#Death and immortality|an immortal who voluntarily chooses mortality out of love]], in her case for Aragorn. She granted that Arwen is not a conspicuous character, and unlike Éowyn does not ride into battle, but stated that her inner power is "subtly conveyed" and present throughout the novel.<ref name="Enright 2007"/>

The Tolkien scholar [[Verlyn Flieger]] wrote that the love of Arwen and Aragorn gives the hero his most definite romance characteristics. The relationship fits into the medieval romance tradition where the knight has "to endure hardships and perform great deeds for the love of a lady".<ref name="Flieger 2004">((cite book |last=Flieger |first=Verlyn |author-link=Verlyn Flieger |chapter=[[Understanding The Lord of the Rings|Frodo and Aragorn: The Concept of the Hero]] |editor1=Rose A. Zimbardo |editor2=Neil D. Isaacs |title=Understanding the Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism |year=2004 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |isbn=978-0-618-42251-7 |pages=122–145 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780618422517/page/141))</ref> She noted that Tolkien "buries [this] ... in his appendixes" for the reader to find "if he looks".<ref name="Flieger 2004"/> Other than that, she wrote, there are just "a few scattered references in the story proper" to show that they are romantic lovers, but even those mostly do not so much as mention Arwen's name.<ref name="Flieger 2004"/> For example, when Galadriel gives gifts to each of the Fellowship as they leave Lothlórien, she asks Aragorn what he would like. He replies "Lady, you know all my desire, and long held in keeping the only treasure [Arwen, Galadriel's granddaughter] that I seek. Yet it is not yours to give me, even if you would...."<ref name="Farewell to Lórien" group=T>((harvnb|Tolkien|1954a)), book 2 ch. 8 "Farewell to Lórien"</ref>

The fantasy and science fiction author [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]] wrote that the Hobbit Merry sees why Éowyn is part of the story while Arwen is not, "for Éowyn, too, achieves the passing of the 'Heroic Age(('")) when girls rebel against being women and "dream of male deeds".<ref name="Bradley 2004">((cite book |last=Bradley |first=Marion Zimmer |author-link=Marion Zimmer Bradley |chapter=Men, Halflings, and Hero Worship |editor1=Rose A. Zimbardo |editor2=Neil D. Isaacs |title=Understanding the Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism |year=2004 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |isbn=978-0-618-42251-7 |pages=76–92 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780618422517/page/82))</ref>

The relationship between Aragorn and Arwen is made even more tender because of its origins. It, like the tale of Beren and Luthien, was written to be a reflection of Tolkien's own relationship with his wife, Edith. They were prevented from a relationship for a time, but when the time came they were reunited. He longed for her for years, and she gave up an engagement and her church to be with him, much like Aragorn had to wait to marry Arwen, and she gave up her immortality for him.

== Other women ==

=== Rosie Cotton ===
[[File:Rosie_Cotton.jpg|thumb|"Simple 'rustic' love":<ref name="Letter 131" group=T/> the portrayal of Rosie Cotton by [[Sarah McLeod]] in [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[Lord of the Rings film trilogy|''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy]] helped to create an "explosion" of fan fiction about the character.<ref name="Sturgis 2006"/>]]

Tolkien wrote in a letter that "the simple 'rustic' love of Sam and his Rosie (nowhere elaborated) is ''absolutely essential'' [his italics] to the study of his (the chief hero's) character, and to the theme of the relation of ordinary life (breathing, eating, working, begetting) and quests, sacrifice, causes, and the 'longing for Elves', and sheer beauty."<ref name="Letter 131" group=T>((harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#131 to Milton Waldman, 1951 ))</ref> Megan N. Fontenot, writing in ''[[Tor.com]]'', considered Rosie important as an emotional anchor for her would-be husband, and a real world anchor for readers.<ref name="Fontenot 2021 Rosie"/> Echoing Tolkien's remarks, she wrote that their relatable relationship helped to make [[The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen|Aragorn and Arwen's idealised romance]] believable, and set it in context.<ref name="Fontenot 2021 Rosie">((cite web |last=Fontenot |first=Megan |url=https://www.tor.com/2021/02/11/exploring-the-people-of-middle-earth-rosie-cotton-absolutely-essential/ |title=Exploring the People of Middle-earth: The 'Absolutely Essential' Rosie Cotton |date=11 February 2021 |website=[[Tor.com]] |access-date=25 February 2021))</ref> Tolkien wrote about Rosie and Sam's eldest daughter, Elanor, within the book's Appendices, describing her uncommon Elf-like beauty and how she became a [[maid of honour]] to Queen Arwen.<ref name="Fontenot 2021 Elanor"/> Elanor inherits the ''[[Red Book of Westmarch]]'', an [[Tolkien's frame stories|in-universe framing device]],<ref name="prologue" group=T>((harvnb|Tolkien|1954a)), Prologue, "Note on the Shire Records"</ref> from Sam when he sails to Valinor after his wife's death.<ref name="Fontenot 2021 Elanor">((cite web |last=Fontenot |first=Megan |url=https://www.tor.com/2021/02/25/exploring-the-people-of-middle-earth-elanor-gamgee/comment-page-1/|title=Exploring the People of Middle-earth: Elanor Gamgee |date=25 February 2021 |website=[[Tor.com]] |access-date=27 February 2021))</ref>

[[Amy H. Sturgis|Amy Sturgis]] describes in ''[[Mythlore]]'' how Rosie is reimagined by [[Tolkien fandom|female fans]], somehow keeping up with the "daunting" competition "from the regal Galadriel and courageous Eowyn to the exotic Arwen and commanding [[Melian (Middle-earth)|Melian]]", in response to the character's "incomplete literary portrait" by Tolkien.<ref name="Sturgis 2006">((cite journal |last=Sturgis |first=Amy H. |author-link=Amy H. Sturgis |year=2006 |title=Reimagining Rose: Portrayals of Tolkien's Rosie Cotton in Twenty-First Century Fan Fiction |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=24 |issue=3 |at=Article 10 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol24/iss3/10))</ref> She becomes in their fan fiction variously "the paragon of the hearth, the iconoclast of the bedroom, or the agent of the supernatural",<ref name="Sturgis 2006"/> reflecting "contemporary taste for a three-dimensional, complex heroine at center stage".<ref name="Sturgis 2006"/> Sturgis comments that the "explosion" in Rosie's fan fiction surely depended both on the Internet and on [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[Lord of the Rings film trilogy|''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy]],<ref name="Sturgis 2006"/> where Rosie was played by [[Sarah McLeod]].<ref>((Cite web|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/oscars-just-another-day-for-mrs-gamgee/C2YZKEK427K4GFO2PZKBYTBBJE/ |title=Oscars just another day for Mrs Gamgee |newspaper=[[The New Zealand Herald]] |last=Catherall |first=Sarah |date=2 March 2004 |access-date=12 March 2021))</ref>

=== Lobelia Sackville-Baggins ===
((further|Bilbo Baggins#Name))

While Tolkien wrote to [[Allen and Unwin]] that Lobelia Sackville-Baggins was modelled on an elderly lady he knew,<ref name=Lobelia/> commentators have suggested that she is an unfavourable caricature of [[Vita Sackville-West]], an [[aristocratic]] novelist and gardening columnist in Tolkien's time.<ref name="Dennison 2015"/><ref name=Satire>((cite web |last=Doctorow |first=Cory |url=https://boingboing.net/2019/09/16/max-merriwell.html|title=Tolkien's Lobelia Sackville-Baggins is probably a misogynist satire of women's rights campaigner Victoria Sackville-West |date=16 September 2019 |website=[[Boingboing.net]] |access-date=5 March 2021))</ref> The journalist Matthew Dennison called Lobelia a memorable [[comic relief]] character whose name resembled Sackville-West's, while her frustrated attempts to secure Bag End mirrored Sackville-West's unsatisfied longing to inherit her family home, [[Knole House]].<ref name="Dennison 2015">((cite web |last=Dennison |first=Matthew |title=Behind The Mask: Vita Sackville-West |url=https://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/vita-sackville-west/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920103722/https://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/vita-sackville-west/ |archive-date=20 September 2015 |url-status=live |publisher=[[St Martin's Press]] |access-date=20 April 2020 |date=18 August 2015))</ref> The Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] observes that the [[Snobbery|socially-aspiring]] Sackville-Bagginses have attempted to "Frenchify" their family name, ''Sac[k]-ville'' meaning "Bag Town", as a mark of their [[bourgeois]] status.<ref>((cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century]] |date=2001 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0261-10401-3 |pages=5–11))</ref> Fontenot drew attention to Lobelia's substantial character development in spite of her minor importance: she contrasted her initially unsympathetic characterisation to her courageous defiance against [[Saruman|Sharkey]]'s thugs during [[The Scouring of the Shire]] armed with only an umbrella, and her generosity in helping displaced Shire-folk. Fontenot stated that Lobelia was "a compelling character in her own right", an "unexpected hero" whose story serves as a reminder that even the most irritable or contemptuous individuals may have redeeming qualities.<ref name=Lobelia>((cite web |last=Fontenot |first=Megan |url=https://www.tor.com/2021/01/14/exploring-the-people-of-middle-earth-lobelia-sackville-baggins-an-unexpected-hero/ |title=Exploring the People of Middle-earth: Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, an Unexpected Hero |date=14 January 2021 |website=[[Tor.com]] |access-date=25 February 2021))</ref>

=== Ioreth ===
[[File:Angelika Kauffmann - Christus und die Samariterin am Brunnen -1796.jpeg|thumb|Ioreth, who triggers the acclamation of [[Aragorn]] as King, has been likened to the [[Samaritan woman at the well]] who recognised Jesus as the Christ.<ref name="Rutledge 2004 p305" /> Painting by [[Angelika Kauffmann]], 1796]]

Ioreth is a talkative wise-woman who works as a healer at the Houses of Healing in [[Minas Tirith]]. The Wizard [[Gandalf]] learns from her that "the hands of the king are the hands of a healer", which inspires him to persuade Aragorn to tend to the wounded survivors of the [[Battle of the Pelennor Fields]], in the process defining Aragorn's power and publicly proving his birthright as the rightful claimant to the kingdom's vacant throne.<ref name="Nepveu 2010 The Houses of Healing">((cite web |last=Nepveu |first=Kate |url=https://www.tor.com/2010/06/28/rotk-v-8/|title=LotR re-read: Return of the King V.8, 'The Houses of Healing' |date=28 June 2010 |website=[[Tor.com]] |access-date=31 January 2021))</ref><ref name="Nepveu 2010 The Steward and the King">((cite web |last=Nepveu |first=Kate |url=https://www.tor.com/2010/11/01/rotk-vi-5/ |title=LotR re-read: Return of the King VI.5, 'The Steward and the King |date=1 November 2010 |website=[[Tor.com]] |access-date=25 February 2021))</ref> Rutledge compared Ioreth's announcing role to three Biblical women: [[Anna the Prophetess]] who is "looking for the redemption of Jerusalem", and who lets Jerusalem know about the infant Jesus;<ref>((bibleverse|Luke|2:22, 36–38))</ref> [[Naaman]]'s Israelite slave girl, who tells her mistress that the prophet [[Elisha]] can heal;<ref>((bibleverse|2 Kings|5))</ref> and the [[Samaritan woman at the well]], who says "Can this be the Christ?"<ref>((bibleverse|John|4:28–29, 39))</ref><ref name="Rutledge 2004 p305">((cite book |last=Rutledge |first=Fleming |author-link=Fleming Rutledge |title=The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien's Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings |year=2004 |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]] |isbn=978-0-80282-497-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRiViwMylSUC |pages=305–308))</ref>

Rutledge ascribes a second role to Ioreth when the war is over: she shows, through her amusingly<ref name="Rutledge 2004 p305"/> depicted ordinariness, how current events turn first into lore, stories that get repeated and shared, and eventually into epic, part of Tolkien's construction of a body of myth, legend, and stories supposed to be about the distant past of the real world. Tolkien has presented the story of The War of the Ring from the point of view of the Hobbits. Now, back in the city, the Ring destroyed, and Sauron defeated, readers hear Ioreth, "no longer a towering Old Testament prophetess but an amusing goodwife full of words",<ref name="Rutledge 2004 p305"/> explaining everything to her country relative. Sam has become "an esquire"; the other Hobbits are in Ioreth's words "princes of great fame"; Frodo is already a legend, though his personal reality is very different. The reader is back at the level of ordinary folk, and Ioreth is part of a narrative that illuminates how stories develop.<ref name="Rutledge 2004 p349">((cite book |last=Rutledge |first=Fleming |author-link=Fleming Rutledge |title=The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien's Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings |year=2004 |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]] |isbn=978-0-80282-497-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRiViwMylSUC |pages=349–350))</ref><ref name="Nepveu 2010 The Houses of Healing"/>

=== Gilraen ===
((further|Born of Hope))

[[Gilraen]], Aragorn's mother, is briefly mentioned by Tolkien, speaking a sad ''linnod'' of her loss of hope for herself, though she has given the world her son Aragorn, who is also named ''Estel'', "Hope".<ref group=T>((harvnb|Tolkien|1955)) Appendix A "The Númenórean Kings"</ref> [[Kate Madison]]'s 2009 fan film ''[[Born of Hope]]'' grows from this small hint. The film imagines a time in the life of Aragorn's parents, Gilraen and Arathorn. Madison plays a non-canonical character, Elgarain, who has a passion for her friend-in-arms Arathorn, which she keeps hidden as he is already with Gilraen. Orcs attack the village as Arathorn and Gilraen are deciding how to keep the infant Aragorn safe. Elgarain is mortally wounded fighting off the orcs from Gilraen's hut.<ref name="Lamont 2010">((cite news |last=Lamont |first=Tom |title=Born of Hope – and a lot of charity |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/mar/07/born-of-hope-lord-rings |date=7 March 2010 |access-date=16 April 2013 |newspaper=[[The Observer]]))</ref><ref name="Reid 2009">((cite journal |first=Robin Anne |last=Reid |year=2009 |volume=3 |title=The Hunt for Gollum: Tracking issues of fandom cultures |journal=[[Organization for Transformative Works|Transformative Works and Cultures]] |doi=10.3983/twc.2009.0162 |doi-access=free))</ref><ref name="thetimes">((cite news |last=Ide |first=Wendy |title=Born of Hope |date=12 February 2010 |newspaper=[[The Times]]))</ref>

== In film ==

((further|Peter Jackson's interpretation of The Lord of the Rings))

[[File:Two_Towers_triangle_poster_per_Shippey.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|The Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] remarks the appearance of a [[love triangle]] in this poster for ''[[The Two Towers (film)|The Two Towers]]'' film, unlike in the book.<ref name="Shippey Book to Script"/>]]

Shippey comments that the leading women may have seemed insufficiently prominent to some of those responsible for marketing [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings film trilogy|''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy]]. He noted that a publicity shot for ''[[The Two Towers (film)|The Two Towers]]'' depicted [[Viggo Mortensen]] as Aragorn with upheld sword in the centre, with Arwen and Éowyn on either side to give the impression of a [[love triangle]]. He commented that to do that, "pretty drastic" changes were required, not least because Tolkien has Éowyn only speak 42 words, of which just 5 are to Aragorn; whereas in the film, Éowyn appears in 14 out of 62 scenes. Similarly, he notes, Arwen does not speak at all in Tolkien's ''The Two Towers'', whereas she features "prominently" in 3 scenes in the film. To achieve this, the film uses material on Arwen from Appendix 5, while for Éowyn, Shippey states, some of Gandalf's dialogue is given to [[Grima Wormtongue]] so that Éowyn can appear directly.<ref name="Shippey Book to Script">((cite web |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |url=https://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/tolkien-book-to-jackson-script-medium-and-message |title=Tolkien Book to Jackson Script: The Medium and the Message (audio talk with transcript) |date=8 July 2014 |access-date=8 January 2021))</ref>

The Tolkien scholar [[Janet Brennan Croft]] writes that in the book, Arwen is "never a temptress" or obstacle, she is "an inspiration and a source of strength", while when Éowyn presents a temptation, "his unquestioned commitment to and faith in his relationship with Arwen helps him pass the test".<ref name="Croft 2011">((cite book |last=Croft |first=Janet Brennan |author-link=Janet Brennan Croft |chapter=Jackson's Aragorn and the American Superhero Monomyth |editor1-last=Bogstad |editor1-first=Janice M. |editor2-last=Kaveny |editor2-first=Philip E. |title=[[Picturing Tolkien]] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNjKrXRP0G8C&pg=PA71 |year=2011 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |isbn=978-0-7864-8473-7 |pages=216–226))</ref> In contrast, she writes, Jackson's Aragorn "reacts to both women ... as at least distractions if not outright temptresses".<ref name="Croft 2011"/> She notes that in the film, Aragorn tries to reject Arwen's pendant, though she says it is hers to give, and he is "even rather harsh towards Éowyn's infatuation", where Tolkien has him speaking "with great delicacy of care for her feelings".<ref name="Croft 2011"/>

The scholar of literature Maureen Thum comments more positively that Jackson presents "a vivid picture" of the story's three powerful women, their visual importance matching their "unusually high significance in a novel ... dominated ... by men".<ref name="Thum 2005">((cite book |last=Thum |first=Maureen |chapter=Sub-subcreation of Galadriel, Arwen, and Éowyn: Women of Power in Tolkien's and Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' |editor-last=Croft |editor-first=Janet Brennan |editor-link=Janet Brennan Croft |title=Tolkien on Film: Essays on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings |publisher=[[Mythopoeic Society|Mythopoeic Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-1887726092 |pages=231–256))</ref> Thum writes that Jackson "stresses what Tolkien implies"<ref name="Thum 2005"/> by portraying Éowyn's feelings for Aragorn and her skill in battle. She finds the invented scenes for Arwen appropriate in reflecting Arwen's significance. She considers that Jackson has not changed Tolkien's portrait of Galadriel, other than to emphasise the power that Tolkien mentions that she has. In Thum's view, although his reworking of the three characters often departs radically from Tolkien's text, he accurately represents Tolkien's view of women.<ref name="Thum 2005"/>

== Notes ==

((notelist))

== References ==

===Primary===

((reflist|group=T|28em))

===Secondary===
((reflist|28em))

=== Sources ===

* ((ME-ref|Letters))
* ((cite book |editor-last=Croft |editor-first=Janet Brennan |editor-link=Janet Brennan Croft |editor2-last=Donovan |editor2-first=Leslie A. |title=Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien |publisher=[[Mythopoeic Society|Mythopoeic Press]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-887726-01-6 |oclc=903655969))
* ((ME-ref|FOTR))
* ((ME-ref|TT))
* ((ME-ref|ROTK))

((Lotr))

((DEFAULTSORT:Women In The Lord Of The Rings))
[[Category:Women in fiction|Lord Of The Rings]]
[[Category:Themes of The Lord of the Rings]]

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