Hroswyn was a father's girl: Captain Herulf Heardfyst was the star her world revolved around, her biggest role model and closest confidant. Her mother died during the birth of her youngest sibling, and so the young girl would grow up alongside the soldiers of her father's Éored. It did not take long for a dream to form in her heart, a dream to become a warrior like them, a shieldmaiden of old, and, in want of a son to do the same, someone to one day receive her father's sword and Captain's title.

She was entirely fixed in this ambition, training and preparing every day, until she was sixteen and realized she had fallen in love with her best friend Demagud, the younger son of the town's Thane. They had always been thick as thieves; but now a romantic relationship was budding and Hroswyn was torn between love and ambition. When at his brother's inauguration Démagud asked for her hand in marriage, she readily accepted - only to have her heart broken when a few months later, he would leave town without a word to anyone. 

It came as a great surprise to everyone that within a few weeks she would be wed to the farmer's son Bernhelm, and not much later, give birth to a girl she named Berndís. Her dream was no more and at first she rebelled against this new life; but motherhood changed her and she grew to love her husband and the simple, loving life he created for her and her daughter. 

As the years went by, a new evil rose in the East, and threatened life as they all knew it. One fateful day, Orcs attacked and razed their hometown. During this attack, Captain Herulf was slain, and in his stead, Hroswyn and Thane Démawine led the people to safety. But even though some years had yet to pass until the climax of the War of the Ring, its approach was unstoppable, and so it came as no surprise when in the year 3019 of the Third Age, Théoden King called forth a Muster of all Eorlingas capable of wielding a spear. Again, Hroswyn was torn. The only thing more powerful than her urge to go was her unwillingness to leave her daughter - but if she didn't, her husband would have to go in her stead, and he might as well have hurled himself down the Rauros Falls and yet have a greater chance of survival. 

But a shieldmaiden's place is with her people, as the first and last wall of defense against whatever evil; and so, while Bernhelm faced the End of the World on a ploughhorse with naught but rusty mail and a battle axe, Hroswyn saw an army approach a town full of defenseless people, seized her father's sword and at long last, his duty too.