How did it happen in the movies?
First we see Éomer, Pippin and a lot of other Rohirrim soldiers searching the battlefield for the wounded and dead. Pippin then finds Merry’s Lorien cloak and brooch.
Then the scene changes to Éomer who runs screaming to an unconscious Éowyn, rocking her in his arms. Aragorn watches with a worried expression on his face, as well as Gandalf.
The scene changes to The Houses of Healing, where Aragorn enters, led by an old woman. Éomer is sitting next to Éowyn, who is lying unconscious on a bed. Aragorn kneels next to the Shieldmaiden of Rohan, takes her broken arm into his hands and presses a wet cloth to her forehead. Éowyn takes a deep breath and opens her eyes.
In the next moment we see Éowyn lying on her bed, with a bandaged arm, rising and walking to the window, staring outside. Faramir is watching, bandaged around the chest, with an interested and compassionate look in his eyes.


Anke Eissmann – Healing Faramir

How did it happen in the books?
There are multiple chapters that cover the events shown in the movies in a few brief moments. First of all, when Éomer reaches Théoden King, we are still in the middle of The Battle of the Pelennor fields. Théoden is still alive at that moment, and addresses Éomer as Hail, King of the Mark!’ he said. ‘Ride now to victory! Bid Éowyn farewell!’ And so he died, and knew not that Éowyn lay near him. [5.VII.] Upon seeing his sister there, apparently dead as well, anger rises in the young king and he chants: ‘Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world’s ending!’ Éomer then desperately fights on, all reason gone and only anger remaining. This causes him and the Rohirrim army to get in a difficult situation, which gets solved with the arrival of the corsairs. (See 5.06b: Corsairs of Umbar)

The king and Éowyn in the mean time are removed from the battlefield, to preserve their bodies from mutilation and brought in the direction of Gondor. When reaching the head of the Gondorian army they meet Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth. He reaches to touch Éowyn, and sees the condensation of her breath on his armour. The prince then tells the men to hurry to The Houses of Healing, where they leave her in the care of the healers. Théoden was put on a bed in the tower room, guarded by twelve knights of Rohan and Gondor.

Merry in the mean time, is following the carriers but gets more and more tired and things seem to get darker around him, so he rests on the pavement. Then suddenly a voice sounds in his dark dreams and Pippin appears to help him up into the city. He was sent by Gandalf, since Merry wasn’t with the company that entered the city. Meanwhile the hobbit is completely exhausted and bursts into tears, his right arm – with which he pierced the knee of the Nazgûl – is lame and he is cold.
Pippin then asks a boy (Bergil, his friend during his stay in Minas Tirith) to send for Gandalf and thus gets the other hobbit to The Houses of Healing.
Faramir, who after his rescue from the fire is brought to The Houses of Healing as well, Éowyn and Merry are then put into beds, where the healers don’t know hat to do with these victims of the Black Breath. They only speak in their dreams and even Gandalf doesn’t know how to heal them.

When Aragorn, Éomer and Imrahil enter the city after the battle, Éomer hears that his sister was still alive and hurries to her side. However at that moment Gandalf returns from outside the city, with a stranger in a grey cloak.
This stranger appears to be Aragorn, for the old woman Ioreth had said to Gandalf: ‘The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known.’ [5.VIII.] and at those words, Gandalf went to seek the rightful king of Gondor.
Aragorn succeeds in calling back all three the victims from the shadow, with much effort and the help of Athelas. But before Éowyn awakes, he leaves the room and thus she only sees her brother.
During that night, Aragorn and the sons of Elrond help many more and at dawn the rumour goes in the city that the king has returned…

During the following events in the war of the ring, Merry, Éowyn and Faramir stay in The Houses of Healing. Éowyn is at first dismayed that she can not join the army to the black gates, but Faramir, in suggesting that they could walk together in the garden because he might need someone to share his sorrows with, gives a new dimension to her life. Thus when all is over, she does not whish to return to her brother, but rather would stay with the Lord Faramir, even after the Eagles come with the message that the war is won and Sauron is defeated.

Bookie details:
– Aragorn is lead into The Houses of Healing by an old woman, it might be so that this is Ioreth.
– When Éowyn is standing before the window, she should be staring into the East, where her Aragorn, Éomer, Imrahil and all that is left of their armies have gone to present their challenge to the Black Gate.

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Related Information
Related Books vs. Movies Articles:


Interesting Links:
Our Gallery has has screencaps of the theatrical version, as well as the extended edition.

A transcript of 'The Lord Of the Rings: The Return of the King' can be found in our Film Fun & Facts section.

A summary of 'The Lord Of the Rings: The Return of the King' can be found in Elrond's Library.

Some articles that are related to this sequence:
- The Middle-earth Section has an article about Aragorn son of Arathorn.

Forum threads related to this sequence:
- You can discuss this sequence in detail in ROTK EE Sequence by Sequence #7: Pelennor Fields / The Houses of Healing / The Mouth of Sauron in the Movies Forum.
- The Book Club discusses this chapter here.

Take a look at how some artists saw this part in the book:
- Imrahil by Ivar Allen
- To the Houses of Healing by tookishbliss
- Athelas by John Howe
- Éowyn in the Houses of Healing by the Brothers Hildebrandt

Looking for something more creative - you may find it here: