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The Other Way 'Round - Page 13

© Michael Martinez

But though Tolkien had no Anglo-Saxon models for Eowyn, he would have found one in Quintus' "The Fall of Troy". Quintus, in Tolkien-like fashion, drew upon ancient Homeric sources as a model and inspiration. And he introduced (or preserved) the heroic Amazon queen Penthesileia for future generations to admire. Penthesileia accidentally killed her sister, Queen Hippolyte, and she fled the Amazon city of Thermodon with twelve companions. Quintus names all twelve, calling one "dark-eyed Harmothoe" and another "Thermodosa glorying with the spear." Penthesileia and her companions arrive in Troy soon after the funeral of Hector, which event ends Homer's "Iliad". Penthesileia has been driven mad by the Greek Furies as a punishment for the accidental murder of her sister, and she is seeking solace in war. Having heard about the prowess of Achilles, she decides that she is the one who will strike him down.

So peerless amid all the Amazons
Unto Troy-town Penthesileia came.
To right, to left, from all sides hurrying thronged
The Trojans, greatly marvelling, when they saw
The tireless War-god's child, the mailed maid,
Like to the Blessed Gods; for in her face
Glowed beauty glorious and terrible.
Her smile was ravishing: beneath her brows
Her love-enkindling eyes shone like to stars,
And with the crimson rose of shamefastness
Bright were her cheeks, and mantled over them
Unearthly grace with battle-prowess clad.
(Translation by A.S. Way)

Quintus includes an anacronistic reference to mail (an armor type which first appeared only about 6-700 years before he lived, long after Homer and the Cyclic Poets had died). Nonetheless, the image fits Eowyn well enough: "Very fair was her face, and her long hair was like a river of gold. Slender and tall she was in her white robe girt with silver; but strong she seemed and stern as steel, a daughter of kings." (From, "The King of the Golden Hall") Penthesileia is welcomed by the grieving king Priam:

Into his halls he led the Maid,
And with glad welcome honoured her, as one
Who greets a daughter to her home returned
From a far country in the twentieth year;
And set a feast before her, sumptuous
As battle-glorious kings, who have brought low
Nations of foes, array in splendour of pomp,
With hearts in pride of victory triumphing.
And gifts he gave her costly and fair to see,

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