So a lot of people have been seeing the Eagle Explanation thing for Lord of the Rings recently; an explanation of why the Eagles only came in at the end of the story and didnt just fly the Fellowship to Mt. Doom to begin with. To a lot of people, it seems like a viable and working theory. See, the thing is, no. Theres a whole host of reasons why no. For one the Eagles dont particularly enjoy following orders. Sure, Gwaihir, the leader of the eagles of the 3rd age owes his life to Gandalf, who once saved him from a poisonous arrow. So he helps Gandalf sometimes. Sometimes. But mostly they do what they want. They helped Thorin and company in the Hobbit because they hate orcs. Not because some silly moth Gandalf used. The moths werent even in the books. Even ignoring their hatred, Gwaihir still owed Gandalf, so theres a perfectly reasonable explanation. As for Gandalf being saved at Orthanc, this was a really weird decision on behalf of Peter Jackson. The moth. The moth in the movie is actually Radagast in the books. See, Gandalf asked Radagast to send an Eagle to Orthanc with any news, way back before it was known Saruman was working for Sauron. So Radagast does his job, and since his power is being friend to nature and beasts and all that, an Eagle agrees to help him. So the Eagle goes to Orthanc to deliver a message, not to save Gandalf. He just sees Gandalf imprisoned on the roof of Orthanc and gives him a lift. When Gandalf asks How far can you carry me?, the Eagle says something to the effect of Not to the ends of the Earth. Im supposed to carry messages, not burdens. As for the Mordor thing, remember: Mordor has flying creatures too. Remember the Nazgul that were riding the flying -FLYING- Fellbeasts? Furthermore, its a huge attention-getter. Flying the Eagles into Mordor is like a huge aerial sign saying Ring here. Shoot me down please. Sure and Eagle might be able to match a Fellbeast, but no with archers on the ground and also Sauron the Evil Lighthouse interfering. In the Hobbit they even say that they avoid the lands of men because of their bows. Sure the Eagles can fly into and out of Mordor- AFTER Sauron is defeated. And just previously they helped the armies of Men in the Battle of the Black Gate (because again, they hate orcs), so they were in the area and occupied. Furthermore, the Eagles are technically the Middle-Earth equivalent of angels or really lesser gods, who serve the king of archangel (I guess thats an equivalent title) Manwe. Which is why theyre sometimes referred to as the Eagles of Manwe. This leads to two final points: They are literally Deus ex Machina. They are a plot device. Even Tolkien admitted that was what they were. So they had to be used sparingly, otherwise it would be both boring and make for a much shorter book. There was even a movie plan in 1958 that included Frodo and Sam just flying from place to place via Eagle. Tolkien hated every bit of it. The gods and/or devine and/or great beings of the Tolkien universe, for the most part, are the sit back and watch kind of gods. The world is actually literally their song that was soured by Morgoth, who later corrupted Sauron. Eru (think: God) showed them what they had done by turning the song into Arda (Earth). Then, after the First Age, they mostly sorta watched. It was usually only the evil ones that did anything on Arda. But that was relatively rare, if impactful. What Im getting at is that the Eagles only did anything noteworthy when Manwe allowed them to. And being the capricious and backseat god he was, that wasnt often. Also due to their nature as mortal gods/angels, they were unable to directly fight Sauron. Same reason Gandalf didnt just go wreck up the place. Basically, Frodo and Sam walked to Mordor because thats the way Manwe wanted it. And at the end of the day guys, realize that this was a story. Sometimes some thing happen because its simply a story and wouldnt be dramatic or fantastic otherwise. If they just flew the Eagles directly into Mt. Mordor and divebombed the lava until the Ring got in, would it make more sense? At a very basic level yes, but it would be an awful story. What we, as readers, have forgotten over the decades and generations, is that everything in a (well-written) story has an explanation. But that explanation doesnt always have to be apparent, and it can be influenced by things we dont always see.Sometimes the curtain is just blue, but sometimes the curtain symbolizes something. Sometimes the curtain is only implied. It doesnt have to be right there on the page to exist in the world. The original readers of Tolkien understood this, and rather than point out and try to fix plotholes, they realized that it was a story controlled by the author, and in such an intricately detailed world as Middle-Earth, theres a reason that things happen, even if the Author didnt tell you what that reason was. He was likely too busy describing to you what the hills and trees looked like.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 19:10:34 +0000
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