May 3, 2002

Eagles as Maia
Richard P.

Maybe I am wrong in saying that they are Maia (or that the very first Eagles were), although I'll try to find the reference that I thought said that they were; which I think may be in Unifinished Tales, or infered to in "Letters". However, they are definatly refered to as the Heralds of Manwe in the Silmarillion, and in that case are probably under "orders" in some loose way from him. Having the early Eagles as some form of powerfull spirit goes some way to explaining why Morgoth could never develop any great flying creatures for a long time, until he came up with the dragons, which are flying beasts with corrupt spirits within. Since Morgoth could only copy, he had to get that idea from somewhere.