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Originally Posted by davem
On the surface its a touching comment by an old man to his nephew, & I wonder how many readers take it as just that? Obviously, its far more than that. Theoden is King of Rohan & his 'son' is his heir apparent. Here he is effectively telling Eomer that he is to be the next king - & he is clearly thinking that this event will take place soon.
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Did Eomer
expect to be heir or not? As far as I can tell he was the closest relative to Theoden and so we might assume he would be the heir, but as there has been a 'history' between them during the time Theoden was under the influence of Grima, here he obviously needs to clarify that Eomer is still heir to Rohan.
That makes me wonder who he might have had in mind when he was under Grima's influence? Surely not Grima? This could have been behind Saruman's strategies - a man under his own influence in power, or civil war. Even so, I think that maybe the Kingship would have been beyond Grima's hopes, but he may have been pursuing Eowyn in the hope that
she would be named heir. After marriage and her taking the throne, he would then have sought to influence her and effectively be ruler himself.
That would have led to an interesting tale, given the hidden strengths and depth of determination that she possessed.