To Fight a Dragon

I re-read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy quite frequently. His character of Eowyn captured my imagination when I was about 5 years old. I actually wrote an entry about the influence of this character in my life in my blog geared to those who love sci-fi and fantasy works.

I have spoken with a few people on this character and many do compare her to St. Joan of Arc. But there is one scene, the scene that I re-enacted as a child that I wonder now as an adult if I was mimicking a different maid. It never came to my attention until I was listening to an audiobook and the narrative brought to my mind this scene on The Battle of Pelennor Fields.

Suddenly the great beast beat its hideous wings, and the wind of them was foul. Again it leaped into the air, and then swiftly fell down upon Eowyn, shrieking, striking with beak and claw.

Still she did not blench: maiden of the Rohirrim, child of kings, slender but as a steel-blade, fair yet terrible. A swift stroke she dealt, skilled and deadly. The outstretched neck she cloved asunder, and the heawn head fell like a stone. Backward she sprang as the huge shape crashed to ruin, vast wings outspread, crumpled on the earth; and with its fall the shadow passed away. A light fell about her, and her hair shone in the sunrise.

When I heard the story this time, I was reminded of the Catena that the Legion of Mary recites.

Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?

This refers to Mary's appearance in Revelations 12:1

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars

Mary the humble handmaid of the Lord, who crushes Satan (who has been depicted as the snake in Genesis and the dragon in Revelations) with her foot.

What a heroine for a little girl to look up to as a role model. Our Lady is humble not timid. She crushes the head of the snake with her foot! I don't mind little garden snakes, but I would not have enough courage to face a dangerous snake let alone use the vulnerable part of my bare foot to crush its head!  It appears to weak sinner's minds that God made it so that Our Lady is in danger when she squashes the serpent with her foot, since that is a vulnerable spot of a person's body. But Satan is the vulnerable one because it is Mary's humility that is responsible for squashing him. The serpent is crushed. The dragon is slain. And the maid shines with the light of the morning rising.