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Moving to the Shire had been complicated. Éomer approved but didn’t understand. He couldn’t fathom why Éowyn would leave Edoras. In time, Éowyn would smile when she remembered this. He brother, despite his boasting, had always been a homebody. No four walls could ever hold Éowyn’s heart.
Merry’s family had been easier. Few in-laws will object to their only son bringing home a member Eorl royal family. It was different, granted, but Éowyn was ready to stand her ground. She needn’t have been though, as the only awkward question asked by Uncle Merimac resulted in an hour-long rant from Pippin. The rest of the Brandybuck’s got on board without much fuss.
Éowyn and Merry moved into a small cottage south of the Brandywine bridge. The Brandybucks had offered to let Éowyn and Merry move into the family home, but there were only so many times that Éowyn could hit her head against a roof before needing to compromise. Sam was obsessed with becoming their gardener, which almost resulted in Merry beating Sam off with a stick. Eventually they agreed to let Sam set up their garden, while Merry and Éowyn would maintain it. Sometimes Éowyn would look up from her flowerbeds to see hobbit children peeking through her front gate. They would scatter in a cloud of giggles, except for the bravest, to whom Éowyn offered a warm smile and a freshly picked daffodil.
Éowyn spent the afternoons riding west, following the gentle slope of the Bywater. She threw herself into a gallop as soon as she reached open fields. With wind racing through her hair and hooves pounding the ground, Éowyn lifted her arms to the sky and felt as wild as the horse-lords before her. Merry said she stood a few inches taller after a long ride. Éowyn responded by sweeping her husband from his feet and spinning him until they fell into a pile of limbs and laughter.
Their marriage was a small ceremony held on the last good midsummer evening. They gathered at the foot of one of the hills in Tookland, where the rolling valleys of the Shire seemed to stretch into forever. Éomer presented Éowyn with his mother’s wedding dress, and all hard feelings seemed to melt away. She approached the ceremony, arm in arm with Merry, draped in a pale green dress of the Riddermark, her train a scene of horse lords and wildflowers embroidered in gold.
Years lated, Merry would tell Éowyn that their wedding was the happiest day of his life. Éowyn simply smiled. For her, happiness was a wild thing, the thrill of the open sky and the red earth.
The wedding celebrations had lasted long into the evening. The Tooks and Brandybucks erected a marquee in an open field. A small rivalry began between Gimli, Pippin, and Éomer, as each competed with drinking songs. Merry soon joined Pippin atop one of the tables where they proceeded to medley five consecutive traditional Shire songs, complete with energetic dance routine. Éomer conceded defeat and hoisted Merry onto his shoulders, while Gimli complained that Pippin had broken the rules.
There were tears with the laughter, and laughter with the tears. Sam and Rosie sat with an empty seat at their table. Some goodbyes take a lifetime. Legolas and Gimli promised that their wedding would be a spectacular affair, held first at Lothlorien and then the Glittering Caves near Helms Deep. A single Gondorian messenger offered apologies for Aragorn and Arwen, presenting instead a twin pair of elven brooches fashioned in the shape of simbelmynë. They danced until they could dance no more, and afterwards they cajoled Sam into telling the story of Master Frodo and the Ring of Power. Sam’s soft voice echoed into the night, and not a single person spoke until the tale was done.
Éowyn once imagined her memories to be a foreign land. Gríma had poured his deceit over Éowyn until even her mind felt slick and intangible. She would wake in the night with a muffled cry, sure that the man in black was going to rip her home to splinters. The bad dreams stopped with time. Éowyn would walk the banks of the Brandywine and catch a reflection of herself in the water, full-faced and with lines of laughter that marked her eyes. One day she stopped thinking of Gríma, and she never thought of him again.
Some mornings Éowyn and Merry left the Shire and rode for days. The wide sky called to them and the open land became their home. When evening came and their horses would go no further, Éowyn laid her head in Merry’s lap and he traced the constellations with his finger. There they slept, shielded by the night and its endless expanse of stars.
Éowyn Brandybuck, shield-maiden, wraith-slayer, found abiding happiness in her long life. Yet, as she reflected on her many years, three things stood apart from the rest. The wild wind, the red earth, and the eyes of the hobbit who loved her.