Article 14045 of rec.arts.books.tolkien: From: <<>> (Steuard Jensen) Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Final note on eagles into Mordor Date: 13 Nov 1994 10:09:12 GMT Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont CA USA Lines: 43 Message-ID: <3a4ok8$rom@jaws.cs.hmc.edu> References: <3a0efv$fd7@netnews.upenn.edu> <3a0k8h$i3e@pdq.coe.montana.edu> <3a2trb$j9o@netnews.upenn.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: osiris.ac.hmc.edu Originator: sjensen@osiris This thread has probably gone on far longer than it should have, but I have to add a final comment in response to some ideas that have been posted recently. There have been many posts attempting to provide explanations consistent with the story for the fact that nobody seems to have considered the eagles as they discussed the fate of the ring. Several people have commented that many of these explanations seem forced and may be stretching the background a bit much. While I agree that many of these ideas are a bit far fetched, I think that those who are trying to come up with textual solutions are on the right track. The way I see it, Middle-Earth is a sub-created world as described by Tolkien in "On Fairy Stories," a world that has in some sense its own life and existence. To write off ambiguities in that world as Tolkien's mistakes denies the very nature of such a world, and robs it of much of its magic. While the "true" explanation for not using the eagles may indeed be Tolkien's failure to consider the idea, as readers and interpreters of his work we must search for an explanation there and there alone. A rational justification for this might be that as Tolkien, the creator of this particular world, did not see the eagles with a major role, there must have been a reason for it. Because of this, I'd like to bring up a comment (of Gandalf's, I think) that almost addresses this issue. When the fellowship was discussing the best route past the Misty Mountains, Boromir suggested trveling south through the gap of Rohan. Gandalf immediately protested, replying that the Enemy had ignored Boromir as he journeyed north, as he was a single man and going away from Mordor, but that an entire party going south would surely attract attention. It seems likely to me that Sauron would have a similar reaction to a flotilla of eagles heading straight towards the Mordor, even if they stopped in Gondor. Even just one or two eagles outside of their normal territory would probably arouse his suspicions. Not being a Maia, I can't explain just how he would become aware of them, or stop them for that matter, but Gandalf certainly had a great respect for the Enemy's powers of vision (or spy network, at least). Also, even eagles couldn't get from Rivendell to Mount Doom in a day: there would be plenty of time for the Dark Lord to call out some force to investigate before the eagles got anywhere near their goal. I don't claim that the above is decisive in any way, but I think that the idea of looking for an explanation of events of the story in their own context is sound. Steuard Jensen