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Originally Posted by davem
Certainly, she doesn't simply want to die - she could just slash her wrists or hang herself if that was all she desired.
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That would be too uncharacteristic of her to do. After everything she had declared to Aragorn about her being a shieldwoman, choosing that manner of death would be like an insult to herself. If she were to die, she wanted to die the way Aragorn will. Maybe at least in that way she thought they could be together. Which brings me to wonder...did she expect to see Aragorn again in the battlefield at all, a potential driving force behind her action?
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Originally Posted by davem
Oddly, it is her desire to 'die' that inspires her to act, to move, & not simply curl up into a ball & waste away in despair. It seems, almost, that her desire for 'death' is what finally makes her do something, makes her take control of her life & act. Its almost as if before she wanted to die she was unable to truly live. Its as if she didn't truly seek her own death - much as she may have thought she did: what she truly sought was the 'death' of her old self. Deep down, all unawares, it seems what she wanted was to live, to be fullly & completely alive. Maybe this is what she saw & responded to in Merry.
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Ironically, as she goes 'searching for death,' she gives life to another. Merry, when discharged from Theoden's service and told to stay behind, had died - he had nothing left to live for. All his original companions are gone. There was nothing he could do for his part in the War, when all his friends are involved in some way. He was 'dead,' not living but merely existing. And then this person who goes in search of death gives him life by taking him on 'his' horse. Dernhelm thought he was helping a fellow 'death-searcher' but in actuality they are both on the road to a life that is really lived.
Confound this rep rule, but I just want to say that those thoughts are really good.
