Nolondil: Friend of Lore

Nolondil: Friend of Lore

The lore and history of J.R.R. Tolkien's
secondary world: Eä, Arda, Middle-earth

Answerer: why didn’t the Eagles fly the Ring to Mount Doom?

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One of the most common complaints about The Lord of the Rings is the alleged plot hole created by the Eagles not carrying the Ring to Mount Doom. Even fans of the book and movies have puzzled over this question, with many expressing confusion or discomfort at proposed solutions. The go-to response from many people is that there simply wouldn’t be a story if the Eagles intervened to end things early on. This is self-evidently true, and Tolkien himself made a similar point, stating that “[t]he Eagles are a dangerous ‘machine’. I have used them sparingly, and that is the absolute limit of their credibility or usefulness” (Letters, no. 210). However, Tolkien was discussing the Eagles as a literary device, from his perspective as the author outside the story. One of the great joys of Middle-earth for many people, however, is the remarkable internal consistency and attention to detail shown in Tolkien’s fiction. From that perspective, the Eagles are left somewhat unexplained.

There are a various proposals for how the Eagles could have been used to destroy the Ring, from How It Should Have Ended’s comedic take to Sean Crist’s quite detailed plan. It is not only readers who have suggested alternative methods of dealing with the Ring. Multiple characters at the Council of Elrond proposed ideas other than walking the Ring to Mount Doom, including giving it to Tom Bombadil for safekeeping and sending it overseas to Valinor. Tolkien, seemingly anticipating responses from critical readers, had Elrond and Gandalf refute these suggestions. The Valar would not allow the Ring into their realm, considering it a matter for Middle-earth, and moreover continuing to hide the Ring from Sauron would not prevent him from sweeping over the Westlands with his armies. Only destroying the Ring could break Sauron’s power.

The Eagles, however, are unmentioned as a possible solution, and once the Council settles on destroying the Ring no one raises an alternative to walking, which is where the suggestion of a plot hole comes in. Few at the Council were familiar with the Eagles and most present were willing to follow the advice of Elrond and Gandalf, but the question remains of why Gandalf in particular, having interacted with the Eagles at least three times before then, did not suggest their use. Since the story is not told from Gandalf’s point of view we don’t know what ideas he may have considered and dismissed out of hand, but since he did not mention the Eagles at the Council he evidently had either ruled them out or had some reason for not considering them in the first place.

Many people argue that the Eagles would have refused to assist in the Quest of the Ring and that Gandalf presumably knew this, and so didn’t feel the need to raise the topic. However, this claim is not borne out by the text. One version of this argument suggests that the Eagles are too proud and noble to carry someone all the way to Mordor, sometimes expressed as “the Eagles are not a taxi service”. However, while the Eagles are not presented as mere beasts of burden, they do in fact participate in the struggle against Sauron and transport people. The Eagles initially got involved in the War of the Ring because they were recruited by Radagast to help gather information about the Enemy’s movement. The reason Gandalf was rescued from Orthanc was that Gwaihir the Eagle had flown there to inform Saruman (whose treachery was still concealed from most) of the intelligence they had gathered.

More damning to the “taxi” argument is Gandalf’s second rescue by Gwaihir, from the mountaintop after his battle with the Balrog. Gandalf tells Gwaihir to take him to Lórien, and the Eagle replies “[t]hat indeed is the command of the Lady Galadriel who sent me to look for you” (TTT, III 5; my emphasis). From Gwaihir’s own mouth (er, beak), he has volunteered in the struggle against Sauron and is willing to accept commands from one of the leaders of the Free Peoples. With this in mind, there is no reason to assume that the Eagles would have refused out of hand (claw) if asked to fly the Ring to Mordor. They might have had reservations of their own, but the topic could at least have been broached with them.

The other variant of this argument claims that the Eagles were forbidden by the Valar from becoming involved in the struggles against Middle-earth. However, there is little textual evidence for such a limitation. In The Silmarillion, the Eagles of the First Age are servants of Manwë, but this does not stop them from effectively serving as an air force for Turgon of Gondolin, despite the elf-king’s status as a Noldorin Exile still under the Doom of Mandos (as evidenced by Turgon’s repeated attempts to send a message to Valinor ending in the destruction of his ships and the drowning of most of his sailors). The Eagles of the Third Age are even more interventionist. The colony in the Misty Mountains intervenes in the Battle of Five Armies and the Battle of the Morannon without being asked to. Whether one wishes to interpret this as the Eagles obeying the commands of Manwë or acting on their own initiative, they are two more examples of the Eagles assisting in the Free Peoples’ struggle.

If Gandalf could have asked the Eagles to fly the Ring to Mordor, then the question still remains of why he did not. For this, it is important to remember that the strategy adopted at the Council of Elrond depended on stealth. At the Fellowship’s departure from Rivendell Elrond warns Boromir against attracting attention by blowing the Great Horn, and earlier states that the Company of the Ring must be small “since your hope is in speed and secrecy” (FOTR, II 3). We don’t know exactly how Gandalf planned to guide the Fellowship into Mordor, but presumably they would attempt to disguise themselves and travel through one of the mountain passes (the known ones being the Morannon, Cirith Ungol, and the Nameless Pass). Gandalf had infiltrated Sauron’s fortress at Dol Guldur several times, so he most likely had experience with disguise.

Bringing the Ringbearer into Mordor, rather than the Ring alone, would be an essential part of any plan. One potential consideration is the admittedly comical question of whether the Eagles would be more susceptible to the Ring’s influence than Hobbits, as the point is driven home that Hobbits are ideal Ringbearers because of their lack of power. More importantly, the Ring could not simply be dropped into the caldera of Mount Doom, but had to be taken into the tunnel bored into the mountainside that led to the Crack of Doom, Sauron’s ancient forge inside the mountain: the center of his sorcerous powers and the specific place where the Ring was made. Carrying a rider would reduce the Eagles’ main advantage, speed, as well as placing a limit on how high they could fly since the rider would have to be able to breathe. Bringing additional people, or even just Gandalf, to assist the Ringbearer should anything go wrong would require additional Eagles to carry them, making things even more obvious to any sentry in the mountains who might spot them.

Sauron did not rely solely on human or orc sentries to guard his borders, though. While he could not be gazing into his palantír constantly, he did have supernatural sentries at Cirith Ungol and possibly elsewhere. The winged Nazgul could potentially intercept the Eagles, and guards (especially in the mountains) could shoot at them. Note that the Eagles in The Hobbit expressed trepidations about flying too close to shepherds with bows. It’s impossible of course to speak with certainty about what would have happened in such a scenario, but the Eagle plan would have presented a greater likelihood of the Fellowship (or whoever ended up riding the Eagles) being forced to fight their way to Mount Doom. Thus there was no reason to spend much time or thought on the Eagles once it had been decided that secrecy was the best way to reach Mount Doom, as people on foot had a far better chance of blending in or otherwise avoiding detection.

The Eagle question does not appear to have been raised during Tolkien’s lifetime, so we have no way of knowing what his precise thoughts on the idea would have been. Likely, he would have repeated his “dangerous machine” comment, which he had initially given to a proposed film treatment that had Eagles flying to and from the Shire. It is worth noting that in addition to the deficiency in entertainment that the Eagles would have provided, their increased use would also have been incompatible with the themes of the book. The corruptive influence of the Ring was ultimately beyond the ability of anyone to resist (Letters, no. 246), and the destruction of the Ring finally occurred because of the intervention of Gollum but also that of the “Other Power [who] then took over: the Writer of the Story (by which I do not mean myself), ‘that one ever-present Person who is never absent and never named’” (Letters, no. 192). In case this is not clear enough, a footnote to the letter makes it clear that Tolkien is talking about Eru, the monotheistic God in his stories. It’s debatable how much of this even Elrond or Gandalf could have foreseen, though, and is more relevant from our story-external perspective than as something potentially going through the characters’ minds.

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  10. nolondil reblogged this from the-books-we-travel and added:
    Thanks! Your way of answering is a lot more succinct, but that’s never really been my strong suit. xP
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  15. the-books-we-travel reblogged this from nolondil and added:
    Awesome explanation! Beautifully researched and thought out :)When people ask me this question, I usually just...