The Greatest Warrior...

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by davem

'Stupid, stubborn & prideful' does seem to fit Eowyn pretty well too......

Eowyn learns from experience, and so I would not call her stupid. She is driven to extreme measures out of her frustration and despair, but she does change.

Turin by and large does not learn from his mistakes.

However, the comparisons being made here are among characters in very different texts, with very different styles. Eowyn differs from most of Tolkien's characters in that her characterisation appears closer to those in 'realist' fiction, with some degree of psychological motivation, while many of Tolkien's other characters operate in a very different style of characterisation. Turin, for example, would not be so tragic if he learned from his mistakes.

Boromir on the other hand does learn, but he learns too late. Maybe he's Turin 'upgraded' ('downsized'?) for a different literary style.