In many of the songs and lays made by minstrels of Rohan concerning the War of the Ring and the part played in it by the Rohirrim, great honor was given to a woman: the 'Lady of the Shield-arm', who, defending her fallen Lord, slew the Chief Nazgul and brought his power to nothing (as hd been indeed fortold many years before).

This was the Lady Éowyn, sister to Éomer and later the wife of Prince Faramir of Gondor. She was the daughter of Éomund, Marshal of the Mark, and Théodwyn, sister of King Theoden; but after their early deaths, both Éomer and Éowyn were taken into the King's House and raised as his son and daughter. Éowyn grew tall and fair, with a graceful step - and a skill with horse and blade to match any Rider of the Mark. As proud and brave as her brother, she found it increasingly difficult merely to wait upon the King in his decline; and she brooded much upon what she saw as the fall of Rohan into mean dishonour.

Thus Éowyn determined to find honourable death as a 'shieldmaiden' on the field of battle. Disguised as an ordinary Rider, she rode with the King's host to the Fields of the Pelennor - and to her own supreme act of heroism. Even so, the fell wound she took from the Nazgul seemed likely to bring her the end she had desired. But Éowyn was eventually cured in the Houses of Healing, where she met Faramir, Steward of the Realm; and at last she gave up all thoughts of battle, heroism and death. She and Faramir plighted their troth in the year 3019 Third Age, after the Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the final victory of the West. They later dwelt together in Emyn Arnen.

Source: The Tolkien Companion: The Indispensable Guide to the Wonderous Legends, History, Languages, and Peoples of Middle Earth. by J.E.A. Tyler
Copywright 1976 by J.E.A. Tyler