Elwyn, Daughter of Eowyn

Elwyn of Ithilien, Shieldmaiden of Gondar

I've always been a big fan of Lord of the Rings ever since third or fourth grade, way before the movies ever came out. I read the books every year until I went off to college and couldn't because I no longer had my copy of the books. But by that time, the movies came out. I remember being so skeptical when I first went to watch LOTR and was just blown away by the visuals, the cinematography, the cast. Kudos to Peter Jackson and his team of high Tolkien experts in recreating a universe that I once doubted could ever be successfully portrayed in film

My one qualm was that the movie did not do justice to the characters of Faramir and Eowyn, my two favorite characters of the entire novel. It was one of hte those cases where I liked each character so much, and was very pleasantly surprised that my two favorite characters in a very big cast of characters somehow end up together. Tolkien once said that the character he is most like is Faramir.

So, I did an LOTR fanart of an original character, "Elwyn of Ithilien" based off of an LOTR "next generation" fanfic concept that I dabbled with for fun. Tolkien only mentions Eowyn and Faramir's son by name, Elboron, who goes on to become the Prince of Ithilien and Steward of Gondor, I suppose. I figure that the pair must have had other children as well. Elywn of Ithilien is a character I created because I think it is very likely that Eowyn and Faramir had a daughter. I imagine her to be fair and golden-haired, a split image of her mother, and inheriting the nobility, courage and strength from both parents. She would be a shieldmaiden like her mother the Lady of Rohan, who would go off on adventures with the "next generation" of the Fellowship, which includes her brother Elboron, Prince Eldarion of Gondor, son of Aragorn and Arwen and her cousin Prince Elfwine of Rohan, son of King Eomer. Of course Legolas and Gimli, since they've been left behind, would often be a part of the crew, along with Faramir II, Pippin's son. Even after the collapse of Sauron, there are plenty of evils lurking around in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth under the reign of King Ellessar, Aragorn II.

I think Elwyn is around 16 in this picture. It's very difficult to draw from scratch with a Wacom Graphire, especially one with a broken pressure tip. One day, I am getting my hands on an Intuos. This fanart is not really completed but I drew it more as a character study while watching the season premier of House. I originally drew Elwyn wearing pants and a tunic, since that's more practical for adventures, but I wanted her to resemble Eowyn and thus took inspiration from Rohan clothing. I was annoyed that there was no female character in all of the Hobbit and the Fellowship is unfortunately pretty void of women as well. Arwen is sort of a non-character in LOTR and is not really fleshed out until the Appendices. But butt-kicking Eowyn made up for all the lack of women in Two Towers and Return of the King