Quote:
Originally Posted by Nerwen
1. The winged beasts are very rare– in fact they're now extinct in the wild.
2. The Ringwraiths' mounts seem to be the first generation to be domesticated.
3. They probably all come from a single clutch/litter/whatever you call a family of adorwable widdle cuddly baby winged beasties. 
So– why didn't Sauron use "hundreds or thousands" of winged beasts? He didn't have them. It's that simple.. |
Quite right. Likely the FB had originally been some small bird-like reptiles. Sauron fed them growth hormones
, to make them reach such monstrous size.
And there is a passage in the Hunt for the Ring about the timing.
Quote:
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It was no doubt at the end of 1418 that Sauron (S. likely aided by Angmar) bethought him of the winged mounts; and yet withheld them, until things became almost desperate and he was forced to launch his war in haste. - RC, p. 262-3
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That means that the Fell Beast project was quite recent indeed. Actually, the nazgul had only 2-3 months to train! The FB project was under-developed, unfinished, because Sauron had to start the war and release the beasts in haste, earlier than planned. That's why, perhaps, nothing was yet devised to protect the beasts: especially their long thin necks. No wonder the nazgul tried to fly out of arrow range, having such rare and highly vulnerable mounts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nerwen
If we assume that even the Dark Lord didn't know of them– or at least didn't realise they were still around– they must have been a chance discovery (by some evil minion, I suppose).
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It reminds me of this funny story about Fluffy the Fell Beast.
Fluffy-I and
Fluffy-II