After the War of the Ring, and the Battle of Pelennor fields, which result in the devastatingloss of their Uncle Theoden, Eowyn and Eomer are two of the last surviving members of their family. With Rohan in ruins, and their house torn to pieces, Eowyn and her brother are lucky to still have one another alive, and they owe quite a lot of that to one very special hobbit: Meriadoc Brandybuck.
Merry, an unassuming hobbit from The Shire, was in the service of the king of Rohan when he was slaughtered bya Fell Beast, one of the cruel servants of Sauron. The Beast first crushed and KilledSnowmane, Theoden’s noble steed, and then went back to finish off the king himself, but Eowyn, who had previously been forbidden to enter the battle on the grounds that she was a woman, and was expected to stay back in safety with the other women and children of her kingdom, luckilydisguised herself as a soldier named Dernhelm, and managed to join the army undetected. There she was able to defeat the Fell Beast before it did any further maiming of the king, though unfortunately it was not enough to save his life for his bones were already broken.
RELATED:What Race of People Does The Stone Of Erech Hold Power Over?
But Eowyn herself would almost certainly have died without the help of her trusted friend Merry, who unknowingly heldthe missing key to destroying the Witch King, Sauron’s right-hand man. When Eomer then finds Eowyn on the battlefield, he cries out in both pain and shock that she is there at all. Unbeknownst to him, she is only wounded, but believing her dead, he mourns her there and then.
When the wounded are brought back to the Houses of Healing, Aragorn is luckily skilled in the ancient arts of healing, a sign that he isthe true king of Gondor, and is able to bring her back from the brink of death and darkness. He is also able to bring Merry back too, who was injured when he thrust the blade of his sword into the kneecap of the enemy. When the war is won, and the wounded are healed, and Eowyn has returned to her kingdom to help her brotherwho is now also a king, heal their lands and right the wrongs against their people, they summon Merry to the great Hall of Edoras for a very special purpose.
Although he will not take any of the wealth or gifts that they wish to bestow upon him for his valiant deeds, Eowyn does give to him ‘an ancient horn, small but cunningly wrought all of fair silver with a baldric of green; and wrights had engraven upon it swift horsemen riding in a line that would about it from tip to the mouth, and there were set runes of great virtue.’ She explains to him that it is an heirloom of their house, and as such it is an incredible honor, for the siblings are awarding it to him, rather than their own children, which they will both later have, Eowyn with Faramir of Gondor, and Eomer with Lothiriel.
The shieldmaiden explains to him that the horn is a great sign of their everlasting kinship, and that ‘He that blows it at need shall set fear in the hearts of his enemies and joy in the hearts of his friends, and they shall hear him and come to him.’ It holds similar awe to the Horn of Gondor.
Before long, this is proven to be true, for Merry has dire need of the horn when the four hobbits return from their long journey to find that The Shire has been overrun. The trees have been chopped down, the gates have been barred shut, and all the hobbits have been cowed into submission.
The group knows that the only way they will overthrow the intruders, and reclaim their beloved hometown so that they can undo the damage and havoc that has been wrecked there is if they all band together. So Merry stages a plan to take out the ruffians, ‘and then lifting his silver horn, he winded it, and it’s clear call ran over the hill, and out of the holes and sheds and shabby houses of Hobbiton, the hobbits answered, and came pouring out, and with cheers and loud cries they followed the company up the road to Bag end.’ There they find Saruman, who is behind all the mischief. They try to negotiate terms with him, but he declines, and tries to leave The Shire, kicking the groveling Wormtongue as he goes. But this is one straw too many forthe servant, who kills the wizardwith a vicious slit across the throat.
The horn itself becomes instead an heirloom of Merry’s house, and is passed down to his children as a sign of his great deeds in the war, his friendship with Rohan, to which he often travels, and of his reclaiming of their homeland, which is re-grown and preserved for all the generations of hobbits to come.
MORE:What Is The Dream Realm That Exists Behind The Eyes Of Elves?
