Gandalf's First Sacrifice

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

As a 'one time only service' it works - Gandalf being sent back by Eru after being killed by the Balrog must be that one time. And after all, it's not the only time Eagles have come to help him.

I am not sure what was your point, or how it was related to what I was talking about, but with this, I am saying - or was saying - that actually, if the Balrog incident was one time, as you say, then the Five Firtrees Incident was the other time, too (or vice versa, chronologically). Simply put, given what's been said in the very beginning few posts of this thread (especially Form's), this led me to realisation that actually the Five Firtrees Incident, when evaluated from looking back, very likely was as much of an important case as the Balrog one. (In case that we are not taking the other possible way of understanding it, as offered above by others, i.e. that it was just Bilbo's writing exaggeration and the situation actually wasn't as bad as it seemed.)

What lead me to this is:
1) Gandalf is about to die
2) Eagles appear at the right time in the right place
3) We have kind of outlined what would have happened if Gandalf died by then, he was NEEDED yet back then, it was certainly not the time for him to die yet. Whatever said about other occassions, but this time it just couldn't be allowed to happen.
4) Eagles are the device of the Powers, as we know.

Ergo, a scholar evaluating the set of events from some centuries away point of view would probably note and put into the Red Book of the Fourth Age: okay, it is clear that there was the divine intervention there. "Something else at work", perhaps, as Gandalf would say.