return

1104 the return of the king
For a moment the thought flitted through Merry’s mind:
‘Where is Gandalf ? Is he not here? Could he not have saved
the king and Éowyn?’ But thereupon Éomer rode up in haste,
and with him came the knights of the household that still
lived and had now mastered their horses. They looked in
wonder at the carcase of the fell beast that lay there; and their
steeds would not go near. But Éomer leaped from the saddle,
and grief and dismay fell upon him as he came to the king’s
side and stood there in silence.
Then one of the knights took the king’s banner from
the hand of Guthláf the banner-bearer who lay dead, and
he lifted it up. Slowly Théoden opened his eyes. Seeing the
banner he made a sign that it should be given to Éomer.
‘Hail, King of the Mark!’ he said. ‘Ride now to victory! Bid
Éowyn farewell!’ And so he died, and knew not that Éowyn
lay near him. And those who stood by wept, crying: ‘Théoden
King! Théoden King!’
But Éomer said to them:
Mourn not overmuch! Mighty was the fallen,
meet was his ending. When his mound is raised,
women then shall weep. War now calls us!
Yet he himself wept as he spoke. ‘Let his knights remain
here,’ he said, ‘and bear his body in honour from the field,
lest the battle ride over it! Yea, and all these other of the
king’s men that lie here.’ And he looked at the slain, recalling
their names. Then suddenly he beheld his sister Éowyn as
she lay, and he knew her. He stood a moment as a man who
is pierced in the midst of a cry by an arrow through the heart;
and then his face went deathly white, and a cold fury rose in
him, so that all speech failed him for a while. A fey mood
took him.
‘Éowyn, Éowyn!’ he cried at last. ‘Éowyn, how come you
here? What madness or devilry is this? Death, death, death!
Death take us all!’
Then without taking counsel or waiting for the approach