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1280 the return of the king
and all there drank to them and were glad. ‘Thus,’ said
Éomer, ‘is the friendship of the Mark and of Gondor bound
with a new bond, and the more do I rejoice.’
‘No niggard are you, Éomer,’ said Aragorn, ‘to give thus
to Gondor the fairest thing in your realm!’
Then Éowyn looked in the eyes of Aragorn, and she said:
‘Wish me joy, my liege-lord and healer!’
And he answered: ‘I have wished thee joy ever since first I
saw thee. It heals my heart to see thee now in bliss.’
When the feast was over, those who were to go took leave
of King Éomer. Aragorn and his knights, and the people of
Lórien and of Rivendell, made ready to ride; but Faramir
and Imrahil remained at Edoras; and Arwen Evenstar remained
also, and she said farewell to her brethren. None saw
her last meeting with Elrond her father, for they went
up into the hills and there spoke long together, and bitter
was their parting that should endure beyond the ends of the
world.
At the last before the guests set out Éomer and Éowyn
came to Merry, and they said: ‘Farewell now, Meriadoc of
the Shire and Holdwine of the Mark! Ride to good fortune,
and ride back soon to our welcome!’
And Éomer said: ‘Kings of old would have laden you with
gifts that a wain could not bear for your deeds upon the fields
of Mundburg; and yet you will take naught, you say, but the
arms that were given to you. This I suffer, for indeed I have
no gift that is worthy; but my sister begs you to receive this
small thing, as a memorial of Dernhelm and of the horns of
the Mark at the coming of the morning.’
Then Éowyn gave to Merry 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 wound about it from the tip to the mouth; and there
were set runes of great virtue.
‘This is an heirloom of our house,’ said Éowyn. ‘It was
made by the Dwarves, and came from the hoard of Scatha