Two Rohirrim by Himring

Lady of Rohan I

See chapter end notes (to avoid spoilers for the riddles of the first chapter).

In the Bitter Watches of the Night

She sits at her uncle’s bedside. Her lips move soundlessly.
What ails my lord, I call thee foe.
I summon thee! Thou dar'st not stay.
Be thou shot of elf or witch’s curse,
come out! Come out!
Thou art small.
Thou art smaller still.
Thou art smaller than a worm, than the blind eye of a worm, and I crush thee under my heel.
Thus!
She grinds her heel into the floor. Her grandmother would frown on such superstitions, but Morwen Steelsheen is dead and Eowyn is alone.
Theoden sighs, turns, dreaming briefly of Snowmane running free over green fields.

Over Death, Over Dread, Over Doom Lifted

Nobody, seeing her walk proudly down the hall after her conversation with Grima, would know she is blind with tears. It is the sound of his harp that draws Eowyn’s attention to the minstrel in the corner.
‘That passed and so may this,’ sings Gleowine softly.
She sits down beside him and listens as he sings of ancient grief: Eorl mourning his father, Brego mourning his son.
‘That passed and so may this.’
‘Who made this song?’ she asks.
‘I do not know,’ answers Gleowine. ‘But some say Helm’s daughter sang it towards the end of the Long Winter.’

***

She sits again beside Gleowine, watching a bar of sunlight laid across the floor of the hall.
‘I’m working on it,’ says Gleowine quietly. ‘I will say of him: Hope he rekindled and in hope ended.’
Eowyn remembers well the black moment when hope seemed very far away, but holds her peace. Is it not nevertheless the truth?
‘Say also of him,’ she says instead, ‘that he was, in his day, the most generous of men, the most amiable and the kindest to his people—how he upheld the reputation of our House!’
‘I will say that also’, promises Gleowine.

Chapter End Notes

Characters: Eowyn & Theoden, her uncle. Also Gleowine, Theoden's minstrel.

True drabbles first posted at Tolkien Weekly for the Old English Writings challenge for the prompts: charm, elegy.

Note on the first drabble:

The title is from RotK ("The Houses of Healing")

Notes on the double drabble about Eowyn and Gleowine:

The first drabble is based on the Old English elegy "Deor" and quotes or paraphrases its refrain.
The second drabble takes elegy in a different and more general sense: "a lament for the dead". The quotation from Gleowine's lament for Theoden is taken from "Many Partings" in RotK, where his lament is quoted in part. (The title is also taken from Gleowine's lament.) The words Eowyn asks Gleowine to add to his song are actually a paraphrase of the lament for Beowulf (the character) with which the poem "Beowulf" ends. I thought this was appropriate as the description of Theoden's burial in RotK seems to be partly based on the description of Beowulf's burial in "Beowulf".