[Kalimac]

For Faramir and Eowyn, I would like (with all due respect) to co-opt Professor Tolkien's descriptions of Frodo and Sam, odd as that might sound. That is -

Faramir - Hope Unquenchable (paraphrasing)

Eowyn - Endurance beyond Hope.

Faramir because he did what he thought was right and stayed - well, optimistic isn't really the word - but you could say that he refused to give in to despair. Remember the scene in the Houses of Healing when he is talking with Eowyn; for all he knows their world is going to end before the next morning, but he can still speak to her of love and hope and recovery from illness.

Eowyn, of course, has given up hope and wanted to die in battle, but she survives. She accepts that she must live - certainly she never thinks about suicide or anything like that, not once fate has decreed that she should survive her own attempt to get herself killed. She has no hope for the future but she will accept what it brings, and that is courageous of her. What it brings, of course, is Faramir, showing that if you hang on long enough all will be well [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img].

Sorry, don't mean to be too squishy. It's just that the more I read the books, the more I admire Faramir and Eowyn. Neither one is marked from the start as THE person to lead and be looked up to; Eomer is in front of Eowyn and Boromir in front of Faramir. Yet they still hold their own, and more.