An advisory has been issued with the storm to track over Ireland on Thursday night into Friday, bringing “very strong to gale force winds” and “damaging gusts” across the country, along with spells of heavy rain.
At the start of each new storm season, Met Éireann collaborates with colleagues in the UK Met Office and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) to come up with a list of names. Each submits seven names to make up a list of 21, with letters Q, U, X, Y and Z excluded.
Conall, Darragh, Hugo, Izzy, Naoise, Poppy and Vivienne made up this year’s Irish contribution.
Storms Ashley, Bert, Conall and Darragh have come and gone since the list was released last August so the storm on its way to us this week has been named Éowyn.
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Pronounced ‘A-yo-win’, the name Éowyn was among the seven submissions to the list from the UK Met Office and was probably taken from JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. In the fantasy epic, Éowyn is a noblewoman of the kingdom of Rohan.
Towards the conclusion of the story in The Return of the King, Éowyn fights and kills the Witch King of Angmar, a villainous character who declared “No living man may hinder me” – before Éowyn revealed she was a woman.
-While some believe it was Tolkien who invented the name, and the character did popularise the name, it’s more likely he took it from Old English. Tolkien combined the words ‘eoh’ meaning horse and ‘wyn’ meaning joy. In the story, the people of Rohan are known as horse riders.
Éowyn may also have Welsh origins and some census records show the name was in use as a surname long before the publication of The Lord of the Rings.
A stock image of windy weather. (Brian Lawless/PA)
7-Day Weather Forecast: 20th – 26th January
In Peter Jackson’s award-winning film adaptations of the books, Éowyn is played by Australian actor Miranda Otto.
This isn’t the first time a storm name has been inspired by a character from The Lord of the Rings – the UK Met Office’s submissions to the list in the 2021/2022 included Arwen, the half-elf who marries Aragorn and is played by Liv Tyler in the films.
The practice of naming storms has been shown to boost public awareness of major weather events and the preparations needed to stay safe.
