April 23, 2002

Of Eagles, Councils and Grey Areas
Everett V.

For the past week or so, I have watched the discussion of why Frodo did not fly to Mordor on the back of an eagle. Proposed explanations of this have dealt with the speed and capabilities of the eagles, Sauron and the Nazgul. While certainly interesting and inventive, they fail to provide anything approaching certainty as they are purely speculative. In order to better establish why the Fellowship did not simply ride eagles to Mordor, it is necessary to examine the roles played by the eagles, not only in LOTR, but also in /"The Hobbit"/ (I don't remember what role the eagles played in /"The Silmarillion"/, so if any of you can find anything that contradicts the pattern I am going to establish here, by all means let me know.)

In /"The Hobbit"/, the eagles make two appearances: when Bilbo, Gandalf and the Dwarves are trapped in a tree, surrounded by Orcs and wolves, and at the Battle of the Five Armies. In the first instance, the eagles carried the Bilbo, Gandalf and the Dwarves out of the burning tree and to safety when they would have otherwise certainly perished. Then, in the second instance, the eagles arrive, along with the Beornings, just when the Orcs gain the upper hand, seemingly for good, enabling the Men, Wood Elves and Dwarves to overcome the Orc-host (I know they were called Goblins in /"The Hobbit."/.) when they would otherwise have been destroyed (It is also important to note that their aid was completely unexpected in both circumstances.).

In LOTR, the eagles appear on three occasions: when Gandalf is imprisoned in Orthanc; when Gandalf is lying upon the upon the mountain-top after returning to Middle Earth; and at the battle before the Morannon at the end of Book V and on Orodruin in Book VI. On the first occasion Gwaihir, Lord of the Eagles, spies Gandalf imprisoned upon the top of Orthanc and comes and rescues him when he had no hope of escape (Those of you who have only seen the movie are done a disservice here, as Gandalf does not tell a moth to fetch Gwaihir, but Gwaihir spots him while flying around.). Then, Gwaihir does the same thing for Gandalf when Gandalf is lying upon Celebdil, having been sent back to Middle Earth by the Valar. Once again, Gawihir arrives unlooked for when escape in another manner is impossible.

The last appearance of the eagles (If you have not read the books, skip this paragraph.) is their unexpected appearance at the Battle of the Morannon. Once again, their coming is unexpected and the army of Gondor has no chance of winning (They probably still didn't, even with the eagles help, but they certainly needed all the help they could get.). When the armies of Mordor fall into disarray once Sauron learns of the Ring's whereabouts, three eagles, Gwaihir among them, fly into Mordor to Orodruin to rescue Frodo and Sam when they would surely have otherwised perished and were expecting to do so.

These incidents indicate what kind of role the eagles played in Middle Earth. They were help unlooked for that only came to the aid of the Children of Iluvatar (along with Hobbits and Dwarves) when it was impossible for them to overcome their trials otherwise, and they only intervened in the most severe circumstances. So, the Fellowship did not simply fly eagles into Mordor not because they couldn't, which has not been clearly established, but because there were still other options open to the Fellowship.

Moving on, (I'll try to be brief on these two points.) the other Men, Evles and Dwarves present at the Council of Elrond are the ones that are presented in the book: Erestor, Gloin, Glorfindel, and Galdor (I don't believe there were any men at the Council in the movie besides Aragorn and Boromir, or at least there shouldn't have been.). As to why they did not speak and Bilbo's tale was omitted I can come up with only one reason as to why this is so: Peter Jackson felt a need to keep the plot moving and carrying out the entire debate, or at least a sufficient portion of it as it was relayed in the book without breaking the flow of the entire movie. Unfortunately, what he tried to do failed miserably. Instead of an intense, but grave debate among the wise, the Council becomes more like a Council of Orcs. Ultomately, this scene, except for posiibly the Lothlorien scene, was the most porrly done scene in the movie(I know we're supposed to be nice, but there were several occasion when expedience led to the removal of key parts of the story, and besides, it's just that much more fun to argue about what didn't work in the movie than it is to hold hands and sing Cumbaya.).

Finally, in answer to Curious George's question about the nature of Gandalf, he is the Maia Olorin. The Maiar are, like the Valar, Ainur, best described as Tolkien's equivalent of angels, though they wield more authority than the angels. Ainur have the ability to take physical form, and the Valar did so, as did the Maiar. Olorin, along with Curumo (Saruman), Aiwenidll (Radagast), Alatar, and Pallando (the Blue Istari) were sent to Middle Earth by Manwe Sulimo, Lord of the Valar, to aid the free peoples of Middle Earth in their struggles against Sauron, but they were unable to fully reveal their powers and took the form of old men. Of these five, Olorin was the greatest, though in his humility, he allowed Curumo to be chief of the order and so greater than him in power (It is interesting to note that Curumo was a Maia under the Vala Aule, as Sauron was at one time, before he was corrupted by Melkor.). They are immortal, though their physical form can be destroyed (as Sauron's was when Iluvatar destroyed Numenor) which reduces their power. After his death (The fall from the ledge did not kill him, his battle with the Balrog, who was also of the Ainur, Gandalf's physical form was destroyed, he returned to the West (Valinor) and was permitted to return to Middle Earth with his power at least more unmasked, if not unmasked entirely (I doubt this because Gandalf describes Sauron as the most dangerous being in Middle Earth, even without the Ring, despite the fact that Suron's power is greatly reduced by his death on Numenor and his lack of the Ring, into which he put much of his power.).

As to his staff and his Ring of Power, Narya, his power does not reside in his staff, rather it is a symbol of it, and Gandalf's breaking of Saruman's staff is symbolic of the fact that Saruman's power has been broken, both by Gandalf and his abandonment of his former arts for those of the Enemy. The effect of Narya is not to give Gandalf immortality but to increase his endurance and insipre others to deeds of greatness beyond their measure. In other words, it increases the powers already given to the wearer.