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Old 07-20-2016, 02:55 AM   #4
Marwhini
Wight
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 144
Marwhini has just left Hobbiton.
Uhm!

Did not the One Ring need to be dropped specifically into the Sammath Naur, which was INSIDE Orodruin?

Tolkien seems to have been pretty specific that it had to be the "Fires that Forged the Ruling Ring..." into which it needed to be dropped.

And not the "Fires NEXT to the Fires that Forged the Ruling Ring..."

OK... That is just the first thing wrong with the problem of the Eagles.

The Second is that Sauron could have seen them coming. and from quite a ways off.

As I have an ornithologist a few feet from me, I can ask about how fast an Eagle can fly in level flight...

Which is about 35mph for short bursts, and about 15mph for long-distance (Using the Golden Eagle as the basis, which is the largest Eagle on Earth).

And that is only when they are at a pretty decent altitude, as flying closer to the ground requires more flapping of the wings, as cross-winds, currents, and thermals are not present at lower altitudes in such a way that they do not disturb straight flight.

Even if we triple the Speed of the Great Eagles (Simply making them bigger actually makes them slower, and not faster, without also making them commensurately lighter - unless they also have some other properties that offset the purely physical), it is still going to take the Eagles about a day and a half to Fly from Rivendell to Mordor (we can make estimates based upon how long it took Gwaihir to Fly Gandalf from Orthanc to Edoras (which took roughly from the middle of the night to the sunrise-isn of the next day - basically about 6 to 8 hours).

Sauron already has Gorgoroth filled to overflowing with Orcs, Haradrim, and Easterlings when the story begins (many not chock-full like he did later in the Winter, or Early Spring, as the War wound to its height).

But if he saw some Eagles flying toward Mordor, he would probably send a Nazgūl up to check if they "felt" the One Ring (there did seem to be some sort of mechanism where they could "smell" it, as Tolkien hints, when they were near it, and especially within visual distance of it).

And the second that they got any wind that the One Ring was on an Eagle flying toward Mordor, he would have had the Sammath Naur sealed up (just for good measure), and an army of half a million Orcs, Easterlings, and Southrons waiting on the slopes of Orodruin for the Eagles to land. Not to mention having had the Nazgūl harrying them the whole way (And if the Eagles had put up a fight, that would just have been proof that what the Eagles were up to was that much more important).

And then Sauron walks up and says "Thanks for bringing me my Ring."

Gandalf and Elrond would likely have known that all they needed to do was Ask the Eagles for help, and they would have provided it (There is a quote to that effect in Gandalf's telling of the coming of the Great Eagles to the Dagorlad before the Morannon, when he asks Gwaihir for a lift to save Frodo, and Gwaihir responds with a reply that is pretty much "Sure, anytime, anyplace; just ask." - The quote earlier in book to which people often refer to say that Gwaihir has "other things to do" is probably a lexicographical error. Gwaihir says he "came to bear tidings and not burdens" means that he has other messages to deliver as well, and not just to Gandalf; Gwahir has an errand to Lórien he needs to perform as well).

But Gandalf and Elrond did not say "Hey! Let's fly to Mordor on the Eagles!" because they knew that it wasn't the brightest idea.

At the Council of Elrond, they make quite the point that the whole mission to destroy the One Ring needs to be one of "Secrecy and Stealth."

Flying on huge Eagles would be neither "Secret" nor "Stealthy."

And there was more than just Sauron to content with.

You also had Saruman, and his crebain out to spy on things, and if Saruman's crows saw Gandalf, or any Hobbits on Eagles, he would have moved heaven and earth to stop the Eagles before they even got close to Mordor (and thus allow the One Ring to go anywhere but to Saruman). And he might even have called Sauron to tell him, in last resort, knowing that Gandalf would turn back rather than confront all Nine of the Nazgūl, in the Air, and where Frodo could be plucked from the back of an Eagle by a Fell-beast.

AND YES... As Aaron has pointed out, this trivializes Tolkien's work, not least of all because of everything I have written above, but for the countless litany of other possible and/or not yet known reasons I haven't listed that would/could also explain why the idea is vacuous.

MB
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