The animals in ME

[Rumil]

I'm curious as to the extent of animal 'intelligence' in Middle Earth.

There are many animals with the power of speech or which appear to understand or respond to complex speech or instructions eg. Roac and Carc the ravens, the great eagles, wargs, mearas, Huan the wolfhound, Tevildo, Carcharoth, the crebain, spiders of Mirkwood, Beorn's servants, even the perceptive fox.

Also there is the remarkable statement that all peoples were split between good and evil during the war of the Last Alliance (except the elves), including the beasts and the birds.

I wonder if anyone has any insight into why Tolkien chose some species as intelligent and why others were assigned as good and evil.

(Plus I'm rather concerned about the possibility of a flock of rampaging Second Age Saurionic killer sheep, but there you go)

[ June 05, 2003: Message edited by: Rumil ]