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Old 08-08-2000, 06:07 AM   #1
The Barrow-Wight
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Ring Gwaihir in the Hobbit?

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Wraith of Angmar
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bmilder asked me an interesting question about Gwaihir last night. In the newest quiz, gaplsi asked a question that had the answer of (something like) 'Gandalf had pulled a poisoned arrow from the wing of Gwaihir.' bmilder asked if the Eagle that Gandalf aided was really Gwaihir?

I always assumed that the Lord of the Eagles (LotE) in The Hobbit was Gwaihir. But bmilder told me that according to the 'Annotated Hobbit', it may have been a different Lord of the Eagles that was healed by the wizard.

A quick look in Robert Foster's Complete Guide to Middle-Earth agreed with galpsi's (and my) assumptions - saying that Gwaihir was the same LotE.

So I decided to research the matter a bit and see why the annotated version might have thought differently. And I found that perhaps Gwaihir wasn't present in The Hobbit.

Besides the fact that the LotE is never named in The Hobbit, in the RotK chapter 'The Field of Cormallen', Gandalf asks Gwaihir to take him to Mount Doom, prefacing his request with ' Twice you have bourne me...I would ask for a third time' (or something like that, but the 'twice' is definitely what he said). The two times were (1) from Orthanc; and (2) from the Peak of the mountain after Gandalf returned to Middle-Earth as 'The White'. If Gwaihir had been the LotE in The Hobbit, the count would have been three, bringing the total to four.

Robert Foster's description of Gwaihir in his Guide matter-of-factly says that the 'two times' meant 'during he time fo the War of the Ring'. But I don't see how he could have assumed that.

Any thoughts on all of this?



The Barrow-Wight (RKittle)
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