Eowyn and feminism and Tolkien

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

I have a theory - though not one I can prove that Elfhelm may have been a kinsman of Theodred on his mother's side, The Rohirrim tend to have similar names in their families and since Hild was the sister of Helm I just wondered if Elfhelm might be kin to Elfhild... Not necessarily brother ..if he were the king's brother in law it would surely be mentioned, maybe a cousin. A fanciful idea I know but not totally implausible. In the structure of the story he would then be a kind of foil for Imrahil (another of my beloved minor characters).

The recent thread on names has got me thinking something, do you think it is possible that one of the reasons Eowyn chose the name "Durnhelm" was that because of the simlilarity of names tradtion it might make it sound like she was kin (mabe some nephew or cousin) to Elfhelm, and therefore minimize any questions by rank and file members of the muster about her being there. Yes I know that most of the proven samenesses are of the first part of the surname, and that "helm" is a really common ending but it does make me think....