#i have literally voluntarily given a 30-minute academic talk in front of strangers about her

[fireandsoup]

I am eyes emoji at eowyn_and_sam tbh. Love that combo.

oh hey thank you for the ask! and for asking about this particular thing, because even though i remembered nothing about it it turns out i still love what i wrote. sadly, i also have _no_ idea how i was going to end it, else i would def be eager to finish and post this!

i think the idea was something along these lines: sam is a gardener, he's established as a nurturing soul from the beginning. and eowyn chooses to be a healer by the end of rotk (which in the books is part of her making the turn from seeking death in battle towards wanting to live; and no shade to peter jackson but he did not fucking get this arc), and healing is also a kind of nurturing role!

but she doesn't come to it by instinct or upbringing, like sam does, she's choosing it, consciously, after everything she's been through. and at the same time, i think sam might be struggling to find his gardening, nurturing shire self again after everything _he's_ been through. so idk, i guess i felt like there was something interesting about putting these two in conversation with each other!

here is a long excerpt, which i will put under a cut because this is too fucking long already:

On the second morning since the guests’ arrival, Éowyn finds Sam behind the house, kneeling in front of some greenery with a type of blade that Éowyn seems to recall has its primary use in gardening.

“Good morning, Master Samwise,” she greets him.

“Oh, milady,” Sam says, hastily getting to his feet. “Good morning to you as well.” He flushes a little.

“I hope you don’t mind my interfering with your plants, it’s just I was up early, and I saw this poor seedling here needed some help. You see, there’s a wild rose under here –” he pushes some branches aside, revealing more shrubbery that looks exactly the same to Éowyn’s eyes – “but the brambles aren’t giving it any room to grow, and also there’s some nasty bearbind twined round here as well.”

Éowyn smiles. “Well, Master Samwise, I am certainly grateful for your care then, though you are a guest in this house and should not feel obliged to do any work at all.”

Sam flushes an even deeper red, clasping his hands behind his back. “To be honest, milady, I rather enjoy it. You see, before we ever set out on our journey, I was a gardener – the gardener at Bag End, which is Mr Frodo’s house. Me Gaffer taught me everything I know.

“I still care for the garden at Bag End, and my own of course, but I don’t have as much time for it as I should like. You see, ever since Mr Frodo and I came back, we get visitors and correspondence, and of course there’s Rosie and the little one, and when Mr Frodo’s ill, I take care of him, too.

“So I don’t get to feel as much soil under my hands as I should like, and when I saw this poor rose here, I thought, you might as well take care of it, Samwise, and you might do yourself just as much good.”

He falls silent, a nervous expression on his face.

Éowyn smiles warmly at him. “Well, in that case, you are certainly very welcome to apply your skill here. We have all seen evils in our days too great for us to keep from doing what we should like, now that we have the chance.”