The Role of Women in The Lord of the Rings

[Tuor of Gondolin]

As early as 1963 readers questioned Tolkien about the speed of Eowyn and
Faramir's relationship. In Letters #244 his response was:

Criticism of the speed of the relationship or 'love' of Faramir and Eowyn. In my experience feelings and decisions ripen very quickly (as measured by mere 'clock-time', which is actually not justly applicable) in periods of great stress, and especially under the expectation of imminent death. And I not not think persons of high estate and breeding need all the petty fencing and approaches in matters of 'love'. This tale does not deal with a period of 'Courtly Love' and its pretenses, but with a culture more primitive (sc. less corrupt) and nobler.

Of course, he had experience with imminent loss in war (2 of his best friends
killed in World war I), and even after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields the
atmosphere in Gondor seems to have been that of the probable virtual extinction
of their world as they knew it (perhaps akin to a nuclear attack, or civilians
being bombed in 1945 Dresden or Tokyo).