.gif)
Eagle (Middle-earth)
Encyclopedia
In J. R. R. Tolkien
's fiction
al universe of Middle-earth
, the eagles were immense flying birds that were sapient and could speak. Often emphatically referred to as the Great Eagles, they appear, usually and intentionally serving as agents of deus ex machina
(or rather, eucatastrophe
), in various parts of his legendarium
, from The Silmarillion
and the accounts of Númenor
to The Hobbit
and The Lord of the Rings
.
These creatures are usually assumed to have been similar to actual eagles (for example, as an independent species of the subfamily Buteoninae
), but much larger. In The Silmarillion, Thorondor is said to have been the greatest of them and of all birds, with a wingspan of 30 fathoms (55 m). Elsewhere, the eagles have varied in nature and size both within Tolkien's writings and in later visualisations and films.
, the Eagles are particularly associated with Manwë
, the ruler of the sky and Lord of the Valar
(angels or "gods"). It is stated that "spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles" brought news from Middle-earth to his halls upon Taniquetil, the highest mountain in the Blessed Realm of Valinor
, although later in the book the same is said of birds in general, and in the Valaquenta
of "all swift birds, strong of wing". (On the different conceptions implied by these and similar passages, see Nature below.)
Upon their first appearance in the main narrative, it is stated that the Eagles had been "sent forth" to Middle-earth by Manwë. He commanded them to live in the mountains north of the land of Beleriand
, in order to "watch upon" Morgoth
, the ultimate evil power who had made war upon the Elves
and Men
, and to help the exiled Noldor
in Elves "in extreme cases". The Eagles were ruled by Thorondor, who dwelt (apparently with the majority of his folk) in the Encircling Mountains to the west of Dorthonion
.
When the Hidden City of Gondolin was built by Turgon
between the Encircling Mountains, the eagles of Thorondor became his allies, bringing him news and keeping spies off the borders. Because of their guardianship, the Orcs
of Morgoth were unable to approach either the nearby mountains, or the important ford of Brithiach to the south; the eagles' watch had been redoubled after the coming of Tuor
, enabling Gondolin to remain undiscovered the longest of all Elven realms. When the city fell at last, the eagles of Thorondor protected the fugitives, driving away the orcs that ambushed them at Cirith Thoronath, the Eagles' Cleft north of Gondolin.
The Eagles fought alongside the army of the Valar, Elves and Men during the War of Wrath
at the end of the First Age
, when Morgoth was overthrown. In The Silmarillion it is recounted that after the appearance of winged dragons
, "all the great birds of heaven" gathered under the leadership of Thorondor to Eärendil
, and destroyed the majority of the dragons during a battle in the air.
during the Second Age
. He stated that three eagles guarded the summit of Meneltarma, the Holy Mountain, appearing whenever one approached the hallow and staying in the sky during the Three Prayers. The Númenóreans called them "the Witnesses of Manwë" and believed that these eagles had been "sent by him from Aman
to keep watch upon the Holy Mountain and upon all the land".
There was another eyrie upon the tower of the King's House in the capital Armenelos, always inhabited by a pair of eagles, until the days of Tar-Ancalimon and the coming of Shadow to Númenor. In addition, it is stated that many eagles lived upon the hills around Sorontil in the north of the island, although in the last case it is unclear whether these were "great" or "common" eagles.
When the Númenóreans had finally forsaken their former beliefs and began to speak openly against the Ban of the Valar, it was in the way of eagle-shaped storm clouds, called the "Eagles of the Lords of the West", that Manwë tried to reason or threaten them.
, a colony of Eagles lived in the northern parts of the Misty Mountains
, as described in The Hobbit. They mostly nested upon the eastward slopes not far from the High Pass leading from Rivendell
, and thus in the direct vicinity of the Goblin Town beneath the Mountains. It is stated that these Eagles often afflicted the goblins and "stopped whatever wickedness they were doing"; however, their relationship with the local Woodmen was only cool, as the eagles often hunted their sheep.
During the events of the book, eagles of this colony rescued Thorin's company from a band of goblins and warg
s, ultimately carrying the dwarves to the Carrock. Later, having espied the mustering of goblins all over the Mountains, a great number of Eagles gathered under their leader and participated in the Battle of Five Armies near the Lonely Mountain
. It was only with their help that the Dwarves, Men and Elves managed to defeat the goblins.
In The Lord of the Rings it is stated that the Eagles of the Misty Mountains helped the Elves of Rivendell and the Wizard
Radagast
in watching the land and in gathering news about the Orcs. In addition, a prominent (though behind-the-scene) role is played by Gwaihir, and the Eagles appear in great numbers towards the end of the book. In a parallel to The Hobbit, they arrived at the Battle of the Morannon
, helping the Host of the West against the Nazgûl
. Several of them rescued Frodo Baggins
and Samwise Gamgee
from Mount Doom
after the One Ring
had been destroyed.
The idea of the Eagles transporting the Ring to Mount Doom, or at least part of the way, is not discussed in The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien himself apparently never specifically addressed it, except in an oblique manner. In The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
, he stated: "The Eagles are a dangerous 'machine'. I have used them sparingly, and that is the absolute limit of their credibility or usefulness. The alighting of a Great Eagle of the Misty Mountains in the Shire
is absurd; it also makes the later capture of G. [Gandalf] by Saruman
incredible, and spoils the account of his escape." (Letter 210) In the DVD commentary for Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Return of the King, Jackson and Fran Walsh joke that not using the Eagles to travel directly to Mount Doom was a plot hole, at which point Philippa Boyens angrily points out to them that the Flying Nazgûl would have intercepted them had they attempted this, and it simply became a common joke that it was a plot hole because the Flying Nazgûl were not introduced in the first film, a point to which Jackson and Walsh humbly conceded.
s (54.9 meters, or 180 feet) and a beak of gold
. His name translates from Sindarin
, an Elven tongue devised by Tolkien, as 'King of Eagles'; its cognate form in Quenya
, another Elven language, is Sorontar. He led the eagles during most of their appearances in The Silmarillion, and has a significant role of his own.
Thorondor first enters the narrative when he helped the Elven-prince Fingon
rescue his kinsman Maedhros
from imprisonment upon Thangorodrim
. After the Dagor Bragollach
, he saved Fingolfin
's body from defilement by his slayer Morgoth, giving the Dark Lord a scar on his face and carrying the Elven-king's corpse to the Encircling Mountains north of Gondolin, where it was buried by Turgon. Shortly afterwards, Thorondor espied Húrin
and Huor
at the feet of the Mountains, and sent two of his servants to fetch them and bear them to Gondolin, fulfilling thus the intentions of the Vala Ulmo
. Thorondor and two other eagles rescued Lúthien
and the wounded Beren
from the doors of Angband
during their Quest of the Silmaril, taking them to Doriath
.
, and that it was in the memory of this service that his eagles helped the dwarves. After his participating in the Battle of Five Armies, he was given the title King of All Birds and wore a golden crown.
Many readers assume that it was Gwaihir that led the eagles in this story. However, in The Return of the King
Gandalf said that Gwaihir had carried him twice before the Battle of the Morannon, while the proper count would have been three or four times if Gwaihir and the Lord of the Eagles had been the same individual.
; his name means Windlord in Sindarin, and he is said to have been a descendant of Thorondor and the greatest and the swiftest of the Eagles of the North by the end of the Third Age. When the Eagles heard about Gollum
's escape from Mirkwood
, they sent Gwaihir to bear the news to Isengard
, as they had been told by Radagast; the eagle espied Gandalf imprisoned upon the top of the tower and carried him to Edoras. Next time, Gwaihir was sent to seek for Gandalf by Galadriel
; he found the wizard, who had recently defeated the Balrog, upon the summit of Celebdil and took him to Lothlórien. Upon Gandalf's orders, Gwaihir watched the river Anduin
and brought him news about the Company of the Ring. The eagle participated in the Battle of the Morannon, and when Mount Doom erupted, he carried Gandalf to it, in order to save Frodo and Sam.
Eagles named "Gwaihir" and "Landroval" (or, in even earlier texts, "Gwaewar" and "Lhandroval") also appear in J. R. R. Tolkien's manuscripts of The Silmarillion, where they are stated to have been the two vassals of Thorondor who helped to bear Beren and Lúthien from Angband, several thousand years before the War of the Ring. The passage was removed from the published Silmarillion by Christopher Tolkien
to escape the seeming discrepancy with The Lord of the Rings, although later he admitted that he was unable to interpret his father's intentions and regretted the suppression.
] already appeared in the first tale about Middle-earth that Tolkien wrote in late 1910s, The Fall of Gondolin, published in The Book of Lost Tales
. The role of Thorondor was expanded in stages, with the successive introduction of the relevant plot elements; and after the conception of Númenor entered in 1930s, the notion that the eagles were the messengers of Manwë was further elaborated. Soon after, Tolkien introduced the eagles into The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, repeating in the latter some plot elements and names present in older writings.
In several early texts Tolkien wrote that, before moving to Crissaegrim after the death of Fingolfin, the eagles of Thorondor nested upon the peaks of Thangorodrim
above Morgoth's fortress of Angband; Christopher Tolkien assumes that this idea was later abandoned. Another rejected proposal was that after Beren's death Lúthien would not pass of grief, but would be carried to Valinor by Thorondor who would have been "summoned" by Melian
the Maia.
The eagles possessed a notable characteristic that distinguished them from other birds in early writings. Tolkien originally described that Eä, the World, was bounded by the Walls of Night, and that the space above the surface of the Earth up to the Walls was divided into three regions; common birds could keep aloft only within the lower layer, while the Eagles of Manwë could fly "beyond the lights of heaven to the edge of darkness". The conception of the limited world and of the layers of the firmament was rejected during the writing of The Lord of the Rings.
The eagle-shaped clouds that appeared in Númenor were one of Tolkien's recurring associations with the downfall
of the island, just like the images of a sloping mountain and of an overwhelming wave; they were also introduced by him into two abandoned time-travel stories, The Lost Road and The Notion Club Papers
. In a sketch for the former, Tolkien projected that it would be "Sorontur" (Thorondor) himself that appeared in Númenor to the protagonist of the story.
Tolkien's painting of an eagle on a crag appears in some editions of The Hobbit. According to Christopher Tolkien, the author based this picture on a painting by Archibald Thorburn
of an immature Golden Eagle
, which Christopher found for him in The Birds of the British Isles by Thomas Coward
. However, Tolkien's use of this model does not necessarily mean that his birds were ordinary Golden Eagles.
After the completion of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien introduced a strict "system" of living creatures:
For some time Tolkien considered the Eagles as bird-shaped Maiar; however, later he realised that the statement about Gwaihir and Landroval's descent from Thorondor had already appeared in print in The Lord of the Rings, while the notion of the "Children" of the Valar and Maiar had been rejected by him long before. In the last of his notes on this topic, dated by his son to late 1950s, Tolkien decided that the Great Eagles were common animals that had been "taught language by the Valar, and raised to a higher level — but they still had no fëar."
Nevertheless, a different conception may be present in a yet later essay on the origin of the Ent
s which, according to Christopher Tolkien, is likely to derive from 1963 and was included into the published Silmarillion. Contemporary J. R. R. Tolkien's notes define the Ents as "either souls sent to inhabit trees, or else that slowly took to the likeness of trees"; the essay agrees in this, adding that the Ents appeared shortly after the Awakening of the Elves, when "the thought of Yavanna ... [summoned] spirits from afar". Apparently the same origin for the Great Eagles is implied by the speech of Manwë within the essay: "... before the Children awake there shall go forth with wings like the wind the Eagles of the Lords of the West. ... In the mountains the Eagles shall house, and hear the voices of those who call upon [the Valar]."
However, the spirits summoned by Yavanna come to Arda
only after the Awakening of the Elves; nevertheless the eagles, according to Manwë, already would exist "before the Children awake”. Given this, the eagles would not have been among the spirits summoned by Yavanna in that paragraph, suggesting that Tolkien didn’t change from the view that the eagles are animals, and have no fëar. They would be like dragons: they have inside themselves a "part" of their creator, which defines their conduct, or their “programming”.
Different adaptations of Tolkien's books treated both the nature of the Eagles and their role in the plots with varying level of faithfulness to originals. The first scenario for an animated motion-picture of The Lord of the Rings proposed to Tolkien in 1957 was turned down because of several cardinal deviations, among which Humphrey Carpenter
recorded that "virtually all walking was dispensed with in the story and the Company of the Ring were transported everywhere on the backs of eagles".
The Rankin Bass animated version of the Hobbit portrayed the eagles as similar in physique and appearance to Harpy, crowned or monkey-eating eagles of the tropics, while Jackson's trilogy provided a more traditional interpretation, with birds similar to the Golden Eagle
.
In The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
directed by Peter Jackson
, these creatures are 6 m (20 ft) tall with a maximum wingspan of 23 m (75 ft). A notable deviation from the book is that Gandalf summons Gwaihir to Orthanc with the aid of a by-passing moth
(the role of Radagast was not included in the film). The same moth also appears to him before the Eagles arrive at the Battle of the Morannon. According to fantasy artist Larry Dixon, the digitally animated eagles in the trilogy were based on a stuffed Golden Eagle
he had offered to Weta Workshop
for use in the project.
Although giant birds of prey appear in legends of many cultures, Tolkien's Great Eagles may have been the direct inspiration for similar creatures in various modern fantasy genres, such as the Giant eagles
in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons
.
Big birds as powerful creatures are included in many fantasy worlds. In some of the worlds, Griffins replace eagles.
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al universe of Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
, the eagles were immense flying birds that were sapient and could speak. Often emphatically referred to as the Great Eagles, they appear, usually and intentionally serving as agents of deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
(or rather, eucatastrophe
Eucatastrophe
Eucatastrophe is a term coined by J. R. R. Tolkien which refers to the sudden turn of events at the end of a story which result in the protagonist's well-being. He formed the word by affixing the Greek prefix eu, meaning good, to catastrophe, the word traditionally used in classically-inspired...
), in various parts of his legendarium
Tolkien's legendarium
The phrase Tolkien's legendarium is used in the literary discipline of Tolkien studiesto refer to the part of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy fiction being concerned with his Elven legends; that is, historic events that have become legendary from the perspective of the characters of The Lord of the...
, from The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...
and the accounts of Númenor
Númenor
Númenor is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. It was a huge island located in the Sundering Seas to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was known to be the greatest realm of Men...
to The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
and The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
.
These creatures are usually assumed to have been similar to actual eagles (for example, as an independent species of the subfamily Buteoninae
Buteoninae
Buteoninae is a bird of prey subfamily which consists of medium to large broad-winged species.They have large powerful hooked beaks for tearing flesh from their prey, strong legs and powerful talons...
), but much larger. In The Silmarillion, Thorondor is said to have been the greatest of them and of all birds, with a wingspan of 30 fathoms (55 m). Elsewhere, the eagles have varied in nature and size both within Tolkien's writings and in later visualisations and films.
Appearances
The difference between "common" and Great Eagles is prominently described in The Hobbit:Eagles are not kindly birds. Some are cowardly and cruel. But the ancient race of the northern mountains were the greatest of all birds; they were proud and strong and noble-hearted.
First Age
Throughout The SilmarillionThe Silmarillion
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...
, the Eagles are particularly associated with Manwë
Manwë
Manwë is a god or Vala of the Elven pantheon imagined by J. R. R. Tolkien. He is described in The Silmarillion.Manwë was the King of the Valar, husband of Varda Elentári, brother of the Dark Lord Melkor, and King of Arda. He lived atop Mount Taniquetil, the highest mountain of the world, in the...
, the ruler of the sky and Lord of the Valar
Vala (Middle-earth)
The Valar are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. They are first mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, but The Silmarillion develops them into the Powers of Arda or the Powers of the World...
(angels or "gods"). It is stated that "spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles" brought news from Middle-earth to his halls upon Taniquetil, the highest mountain in the Blessed Realm of Valinor
Valinor
Valinor is a fictional location in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the realm of the Valar in Aman. It was also known as the Undying Lands, along with Tol Eressëa and the outliers of Aman. This is something of a misnomer; only immortal beings were allowed to reside there, but the land itself,...
, although later in the book the same is said of birds in general, and in the Valaquenta
Valaquenta
Valaquenta is the second section of The Silmarillion, a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977.-Overview:...
of "all swift birds, strong of wing". (On the different conceptions implied by these and similar passages, see Nature below.)
Upon their first appearance in the main narrative, it is stated that the Eagles had been "sent forth" to Middle-earth by Manwë. He commanded them to live in the mountains north of the land of Beleriand
Beleriand
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional legendarium, Beleriand was a region in northwestern Middle-earth during the First Age. Events in Beleriand are described chiefly in his work The Silmarillion, which tells the story of the early ages of Middle-earth in a style similar to the epic hero tales of Nordic...
, in order to "watch upon" Morgoth
Morgoth
Morgoth Bauglir is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. He is the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, figures in The Children of Húrin, and is mentioned briefly in The Lord of the Rings.Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur, but turned to darkness and became...
, the ultimate evil power who had made war upon the Elves
Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...
and Men
Man (Middle-earth)
The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, refers to humanity and does not denote gender...
, and to help the exiled Noldor
Noldor
In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Noldor are Elves of the Second Clan who migrated to Valinor and lived in Eldamar. The Noldor are called Golodhrim or Gódhellim in Sindarin, and Goldoi by Teleri of Tol Eressëa. The singular form of the Quenya noun is Noldo and the adjective is Noldorin...
in Elves "in extreme cases". The Eagles were ruled by Thorondor, who dwelt (apparently with the majority of his folk) in the Encircling Mountains to the west of Dorthonion
Dorthonion
In the fictional world of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, Dorthonion , later Taur-nu-Fuin, was a highland region of the First Age, lying immediately to the north of Beleriand, and south of the plains of Ard-galen that extended north to Morgoth's stronghold of Thangorodrim...
.
When the Hidden City of Gondolin was built by Turgon
Turgon
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Turgon "the Wise" is an Elven king of the Noldor, second son of Fingolfin, brother to Fingon, Aredhel and Argon, and ruler of the hidden city of Gondolin....
between the Encircling Mountains, the eagles of Thorondor became his allies, bringing him news and keeping spies off the borders. Because of their guardianship, the Orcs
Orc (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings, Orcs or Orks are a race of creatures who are used as soldiers and henchmen by both the greater and lesser villains of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings — Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman...
of Morgoth were unable to approach either the nearby mountains, or the important ford of Brithiach to the south; the eagles' watch had been redoubled after the coming of Tuor
Tuor
Tuor is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is the grandfather of Elrond Half-elven and one of the most renowned ancestors of the Men of Númenor and of the King of the Reunited Kingdom Aragorn Elessar...
, enabling Gondolin to remain undiscovered the longest of all Elven realms. When the city fell at last, the eagles of Thorondor protected the fugitives, driving away the orcs that ambushed them at Cirith Thoronath, the Eagles' Cleft north of Gondolin.
The Eagles fought alongside the army of the Valar, Elves and Men during the War of Wrath
War of Wrath
The War of Wrath, or the Great Battle, is a key plot development in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, portraying the final war against Morgoth at the end of the First Age....
at the end of the First Age
First Age
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the First Age, or First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar is the heroic period in which most of Tolkien's early legends are set...
, when Morgoth was overthrown. In The Silmarillion it is recounted that after the appearance of winged dragons
Dragon (Middle-earth)
J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium features dragons closely based on those of European legend.Besides dragon , Tolkien variously used the terms drake and worm .-History:The dragons were created by Morgoth...
, "all the great birds of heaven" gathered under the leadership of Thorondor to Eärendil
Eärendil
Eärendil the Mariner is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is depicted in The Silmarillion as a great seafarer who, on his brow, carried the morning star across the sky.-Etymology:...
, and destroyed the majority of the dragons during a battle in the air.
Second Age
Tolkien mentioned the eagles in his accounts of the island of NúmenorNúmenor
Númenor is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. It was a huge island located in the Sundering Seas to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was known to be the greatest realm of Men...
during the Second Age
Second Age
The Second Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. Tolkien intended for the history of Middle-earth to be considered fictionally as a precursor to the history of the real Earth....
. He stated that three eagles guarded the summit of Meneltarma, the Holy Mountain, appearing whenever one approached the hallow and staying in the sky during the Three Prayers. The Númenóreans called them "the Witnesses of Manwë" and believed that these eagles had been "sent by him from Aman
Aman
-External links:*...
to keep watch upon the Holy Mountain and upon all the land".
There was another eyrie upon the tower of the King's House in the capital Armenelos, always inhabited by a pair of eagles, until the days of Tar-Ancalimon and the coming of Shadow to Númenor. In addition, it is stated that many eagles lived upon the hills around Sorontil in the north of the island, although in the last case it is unclear whether these were "great" or "common" eagles.
When the Númenóreans had finally forsaken their former beliefs and began to speak openly against the Ban of the Valar, it was in the way of eagle-shaped storm clouds, called the "Eagles of the Lords of the West", that Manwë tried to reason or threaten them.
Third Age
By the end of the Third AgeThird Age
The Third Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The history of Middle-earth is to be taken fictionally as a history of the real Earth....
, a colony of Eagles lived in the northern parts of the Misty Mountains
Misty Mountains
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth, the Misty Mountains is a mountain range, running for 795 miles from north to south, between Eriador and the valley of the Great River, Anduin, and...
, as described in The Hobbit. They mostly nested upon the eastward slopes not far from the High Pass leading from Rivendell
Rivendell
Rivendell is an Elven outpost in Middle-earth, a fictional realm created by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was established and ruled by Elrond in the Second Age of Middle-earth...
, and thus in the direct vicinity of the Goblin Town beneath the Mountains. It is stated that these Eagles often afflicted the goblins and "stopped whatever wickedness they were doing"; however, their relationship with the local Woodmen was only cool, as the eagles often hunted their sheep.
During the events of the book, eagles of this colony rescued Thorin's company from a band of goblins and warg
Warg
In Norse mythology, a vargr is a wolf and in particular refers to the wolf Fenrir and his sons Sköll and Hati. Based on this, J. R. R. Tolkien in his fiction used the Old English form warg In Norse mythology, a vargr (often anglicised as warg or varg) is a wolf and in particular refers to the...
s, ultimately carrying the dwarves to the Carrock. Later, having espied the mustering of goblins all over the Mountains, a great number of Eagles gathered under their leader and participated in the Battle of Five Armies near the Lonely Mountain
Lonely Mountain
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the Lonely Mountain is a mountain in the northeast of Rhovanion. It is also the source of the Celduin river.- Origins of the Kingdom Under the Mountain :...
. It was only with their help that the Dwarves, Men and Elves managed to defeat the goblins.
In The Lord of the Rings it is stated that the Eagles of the Misty Mountains helped the Elves of Rivendell and the Wizard
Wizard (Middle-earth)
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Wizards of Middle-earth are a group of beings outwardly resembling Men but possessing much greater physical and mental power. They are also called the Istari by the Elves. The Sindarin word is Ithryn...
Radagast
Radagast (Middle-earth)
Radagast the Brown is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is one of the Istari or Wizards who were sent by the angelic Valar to aid the Elves and Men of Middle-earth in their struggle against the Dark Lord Sauron...
in watching the land and in gathering news about the Orcs. In addition, a prominent (though behind-the-scene) role is played by Gwaihir, and the Eagles appear in great numbers towards the end of the book. In a parallel to The Hobbit, they arrived at the Battle of the Morannon
Battle of the Morannon
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Battle of the Morannon or Battle of the Black Gate is a fictional event that took place at the end of the War of the Ring...
, helping the Host of the West against the Nazgûl
Nazgûl
The Nazgûl are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium...
. Several of them rescued Frodo Baggins
Frodo Baggins
Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium.He is the main protagonist of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He was a hobbit of the Shire who inherited Sauron's Ring from Bilbo Baggins and undertook the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom...
and Samwise Gamgee
Samwise Gamgee
Samwise Gamgee, later known as Samwise Gardner and commonly as Sam, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Samwise is one of the chief characters in Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, in which he fills an archetypical role as the sidekick of the protagonist, Frodo...
from Mount Doom
Mount Doom
Mount Doom is a volcano in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. It is located in the heart of the black land of Mordor and close to Barad-dûr, it is approximately high. Alternative names, in Tolkien's invented language of Sindarin, include Orodruin and Amon Amarth...
after the One Ring
One Ring
The One Ring is a fictional artifact that appears as the central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy novels. It is described in an earlier story, The Hobbit , as a magic ring of invisibility. The sequel The Lord of the Rings describes its powers as being more encompassing than...
had been destroyed.
The idea of the Eagles transporting the Ring to Mount Doom, or at least part of the way, is not discussed in The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien himself apparently never specifically addressed it, except in an oblique manner. In The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien is a selection of J. R. R. Tolkien's letters published in 1981, edited by Tolkien's biographer Humphrey Carpenter assisted by Christopher Tolkien...
, he stated: "The Eagles are a dangerous 'machine'. I have used them sparingly, and that is the absolute limit of their credibility or usefulness. The alighting of a Great Eagle of the Misty Mountains in the Shire
Shire (Middle-earth)
The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in The Lord of the Rings and other works. The Shire refers to an area settled exclusively by Hobbits and largely removed from the goings-on in the rest of Middle-earth. It is located in the northwest of the continent, in...
is absurd; it also makes the later capture of G. [Gandalf] by Saruman
Saruman
Saruman the White is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He is leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the tale, but later on aims at gaining...
incredible, and spoils the account of his escape." (Letter 210) In the DVD commentary for Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Return of the King, Jackson and Fran Walsh joke that not using the Eagles to travel directly to Mount Doom was a plot hole, at which point Philippa Boyens angrily points out to them that the Flying Nazgûl would have intercepted them had they attempted this, and it simply became a common joke that it was a plot hole because the Flying Nazgûl were not introduced in the first film, a point to which Jackson and Walsh humbly conceded.
Thorondor
The Lord of Eagles in the First Age, said in The Silmarillion to be the "mightiest of all birds that have ever been", with a wingspan of thirty fathomFathom
A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems, used especially for measuring the depth of water.There are 2 yards in an imperial or U.S. fathom...
s (54.9 meters, or 180 feet) and a beak of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
. His name translates from Sindarin
Sindarin
Sindarin is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called the Eledhrim or Edhellim in Sindarin....
, an Elven tongue devised by Tolkien, as 'King of Eagles'; its cognate form in Quenya
Quenya
Quenya is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Quenya is one of the many Elvish languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called Quendi in Quenya. The tongue actually called Quenya was in origin the speech of two clans of Elves...
, another Elven language, is Sorontar. He led the eagles during most of their appearances in The Silmarillion, and has a significant role of his own.
Thorondor first enters the narrative when he helped the Elven-prince Fingon
Fingon
Fingon is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Silmarillion.-Character overview:...
rescue his kinsman Maedhros
Maedhros
Maedhros is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. First introduced in The Silmarillion and later mentioned in Unfinished Tales and The Children of Húrin, he is one of the most enduring characters in The Silmarillion, and has been the subject of paintings by artists such as Jenny...
from imprisonment upon Thangorodrim
Thangorodrim
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Thangorodrim was a group of three volcanic mountains in the Iron Mountains in the north of Middle-earth during the First Age...
. After the Dagor Bragollach
Dagor Bragollach
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, the Dagor Bragollach was the fourth battle of the Wars of Beleriand...
, he saved Fingolfin
Fingolfin
Fingolfin is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, appearing in The Silmarillion.-Internal history:He was a High King of the Noldor in Beleriand, second eldest son of Finwë, full brother of Finarfin, and half-brother of Fëanor, who was the eldest of Finwë's sons. His mother was...
's body from defilement by his slayer Morgoth, giving the Dark Lord a scar on his face and carrying the Elven-king's corpse to the Encircling Mountains north of Gondolin, where it was buried by Turgon. Shortly afterwards, Thorondor espied Húrin
Húrin
Húrin is a fictional character in the Middle-earth legendarium of J. R. R. Tolkien. He is introduced in The Silmarillion as a hero of Men during the First Age, said to be the greatest warrior of both the Edain and all the other Men in Middle-earth...
and Huor
Huor
Huor is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He was introduced in The Silmarillion as a hero of Men during the First Age. Huor was a grandson of Hador of the Third House of Edain, and lived in the Hadorian fief of Dor-lómin in Hithlum. His father was Galdor the Tall and his mother Hareth...
at the feet of the Mountains, and sent two of his servants to fetch them and bear them to Gondolin, fulfilling thus the intentions of the Vala Ulmo
Ulmo
Ulmo is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He first appears in The Silmarillion as a god or Vala of the Elven pantheon. Ulmo is a title, which means He who pours. He is also known as King of the Sea and Lord of Waters...
. Thorondor and two other eagles rescued Lúthien
Lúthien
Lúthien Tinúviel is a fictional character in the fantasy-world Middle-earth of the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. She appears in The Silmarillion, the epic poem The Lay of Leithian, The Lord of the Rings and the Grey Annals, as well as in other material.-Character overview:Lúthien is a Telerin ...
and the wounded Beren
Beren
Beren is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He appears in The Silmarillion. Huan spoke to him.-Character overview:...
from the doors of Angband
Angband (Middle-earth)
-External links:*...
during their Quest of the Silmaril, taking them to Doriath
Doriath
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, Doriath is the realm of the Sindar, the Grey Elves of King Thingol in Beleriand. Along with the other great forests of Tolkien's legendarium such as Mirkwood, Fangorn and Lothlórien it serves as the central stage in the theatre of its time, the First Age...
.
Lord of the Eagles
While in The Silmarillion the title "Lord of the Eagles" applies to Thorondor, in The Hobbit it evidently has another significance. No eagles are identified by name in this book, and titles "the Lord of the Eagles" or "the Great Eagle" distinguish their leader from others. It is stated that once he had been healed from an arrow-wound by GandalfGandalf
Gandalf is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In these stories, Gandalf appears as a wizard, member and later the head of the order known as the Istari, as well as leader of the Fellowship of the Ring and the army of the West...
, and that it was in the memory of this service that his eagles helped the dwarves. After his participating in the Battle of Five Armies, he was given the title King of All Birds and wore a golden crown.
Many readers assume that it was Gwaihir that led the eagles in this story. However, in The Return of the King
The Return of the King
The Return of the King is the third and final volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, following The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.-Title:...
Gandalf said that Gwaihir had carried him twice before the Battle of the Morannon, while the proper count would have been three or four times if Gwaihir and the Lord of the Eagles had been the same individual.
Gwaihir
An eagle from the Misty Mountains that helped Gandalf before and during the War of the RingWar of the Ring
In the fictional high fantasy-world of J. R. R. Tolkien, the War of the Ring was fought between Sauron and the free peoples of Middle-earth for control of the One Ring and dominion over the continent. The War of the Ring took place at the end of the Third Age. Together with the Quest of Mount Doom,...
; his name means Windlord in Sindarin, and he is said to have been a descendant of Thorondor and the greatest and the swiftest of the Eagles of the North by the end of the Third Age. When the Eagles heard about Gollum
Gollum
Gollum is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He was introduced in the author's fantasy novel The Hobbit, and became an important supporting character in its sequel, The Lord of the Rings....
's escape from Mirkwood
Mirkwood
Mirkwood is a name used for two distinct fictional forests in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. In the First Age, the highlands of Dorthonion north of Beleriand were known as Mirkwood after falling under Morgoth's control. During the Third Age, the large forest in Rhovanion, east of the Anduin in ...
, they sent Gwaihir to bear the news to Isengard
Isengard
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Isengard , a translation of the Sindarin Angrenost, was a large fortress. Both names mean "Iron fortress" In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Isengard , a translation of the Sindarin Angrenost, was a large fortress....
, as they had been told by Radagast; the eagle espied Gandalf imprisoned upon the top of the tower and carried him to Edoras. Next time, Gwaihir was sent to seek for Gandalf by Galadriel
Galadriel
Galadriel is a character created by J.R.R. Tolkien, appearing in his Middle-earth legendarium. She appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales....
; he found the wizard, who had recently defeated the Balrog, upon the summit of Celebdil and took him to Lothlórien. Upon Gandalf's orders, Gwaihir watched the river Anduin
Anduin
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, Anduin is the Sindarin name for the Great River of Wilderland, the longest river in the Third Age . The ancestors of the Rohirrim called it Langflood. It flowed from its source in the Grey and Misty Mountains to the Mouths of Anduin in the Great Sea...
and brought him news about the Company of the Ring. The eagle participated in the Battle of the Morannon, and when Mount Doom erupted, he carried Gandalf to it, in order to save Frodo and Sam.
Eagles named "Gwaihir" and "Landroval" (or, in even earlier texts, "Gwaewar" and "Lhandroval") also appear in J. R. R. Tolkien's manuscripts of The Silmarillion, where they are stated to have been the two vassals of Thorondor who helped to bear Beren and Lúthien from Angband, several thousand years before the War of the Ring. The passage was removed from the published Silmarillion by Christopher Tolkien
Christopher Tolkien
Christopher Reuel Tolkien is the third and youngest son of the author J. R. R. Tolkien , and is best known as the editor of much of his father's posthumously published work. He drew the original maps for his father's The Lord of the Rings, which he signed C. J. R. T. The J...
to escape the seeming discrepancy with The Lord of the Rings, although later he admitted that he was unable to interpret his father's intentions and regretted the suppression.
Landroval
An eagle who helped to carry Frodo and Sam from Mount Doom, said in The Lord of the Rings to have been the brother of Gwaihir and descendant of Thorondor. His name means 'wide-wing' in Sindarin, and it was also used for an eagle of the First Age, either the same as that of the Third or not (see above).Meneldor
The third companion of Gwaihir and Landroval in the rescue of Frodo and Sam. His name means 'Sky-king' in Sindarin, and he is given a sobriquet "young and swift".Concept and creation
The Great Eagles ruled by "Thorndor" [sicSic
Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
] already appeared in the first tale about Middle-earth that Tolkien wrote in late 1910s, The Fall of Gondolin, published in The Book of Lost Tales
The Book of Lost Tales
The Book of Lost Tales is the title of a collection of early stories by J. R. R. Tolkien, and of the first two volumes of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series The History of Middle-earth, in which he presents and analyses the manuscripts of those stories, which were the earliest form of the...
. The role of Thorondor was expanded in stages, with the successive introduction of the relevant plot elements; and after the conception of Númenor entered in 1930s, the notion that the eagles were the messengers of Manwë was further elaborated. Soon after, Tolkien introduced the eagles into The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, repeating in the latter some plot elements and names present in older writings.
In several early texts Tolkien wrote that, before moving to Crissaegrim after the death of Fingolfin, the eagles of Thorondor nested upon the peaks of Thangorodrim
Thangorodrim
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Thangorodrim was a group of three volcanic mountains in the Iron Mountains in the north of Middle-earth during the First Age...
above Morgoth's fortress of Angband; Christopher Tolkien assumes that this idea was later abandoned. Another rejected proposal was that after Beren's death Lúthien would not pass of grief, but would be carried to Valinor by Thorondor who would have been "summoned" by Melian
Melian
Melian the Maia is a fictional character in the fantasy-world Middle-earth of the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. She appears in The Silmarillion, the epic poem The Lay of Leithian, The Children of Húrin, the Annals of Aman and the Grey Annals....
the Maia.
The eagles possessed a notable characteristic that distinguished them from other birds in early writings. Tolkien originally described that Eä, the World, was bounded by the Walls of Night, and that the space above the surface of the Earth up to the Walls was divided into three regions; common birds could keep aloft only within the lower layer, while the Eagles of Manwë could fly "beyond the lights of heaven to the edge of darkness". The conception of the limited world and of the layers of the firmament was rejected during the writing of The Lord of the Rings.
The eagle-shaped clouds that appeared in Númenor were one of Tolkien's recurring associations with the downfall
Akallabêth
Akallabêth is the fourth part of the fantasy work The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is relatively short, consisting of about thirty pages.-Synopsis:...
of the island, just like the images of a sloping mountain and of an overwhelming wave; they were also introduced by him into two abandoned time-travel stories, The Lost Road and The Notion Club Papers
The Notion Club Papers
The Notion Club Papers is the title of an abandoned novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, written during 1945 and published posthumously in Sauron Defeated, the 9th volume of The History of Middle-earth. It is a space/time/dream travel story, written at the same time as The Lord of the Rings was being developed...
. In a sketch for the former, Tolkien projected that it would be "Sorontur" (Thorondor) himself that appeared in Númenor to the protagonist of the story.
Tolkien's painting of an eagle on a crag appears in some editions of The Hobbit. According to Christopher Tolkien, the author based this picture on a painting by Archibald Thorburn
Archibald Thorburn
Archibald Thorburn was a Scottish artist and bird illustrator, painting mostly in watercolour. He regularly visited Scotland to sketch birds in the wild, his favourite haunt being the Forest of Gaick near Kingussie in Invernesshire...
of an immature Golden Eagle
Golden Eagle
The Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...
, which Christopher found for him in The Birds of the British Isles by Thomas Coward
Thomas Coward
Thomas Alfred Coward, MSc, FZS, FRES, MBOU , was an English ornithologist and an amateur astronomer. He wrote extensively on natural history, local history and Cheshire.-Life:...
. However, Tolkien's use of this model does not necessarily mean that his birds were ordinary Golden Eagles.
Nature of the Eagles
The question of the Great Eagles' nature was faced by Tolkien with apparent hesitation. In early writings there was no need to define it precisely, since he imagined that, beside the Valar, "many lesser spirits... both great and small" had entered the Eä upon its creation; and such talking and sapient creatures as the Eagles or Huan the Hound, in Tolkien's own words, "have been rather lightly adopted from less 'serious' mythologies". The phrase "spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles" in The Silmarillion derives from that stage of writing.After the completion of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien introduced a strict "system" of living creatures:
- Incarnates or the "Children of IlúvatarChildren of IlúvatarThe Children of Ilúvatar is the name given to the two races of Elves and Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium because they were created by Ilúvatar, the One God, without the help of the Ainur....
": Elves, Men, DwarvesDwarf (Middle-earth)In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Dwarves are a race inhabiting the world of Arda, a fictional prehistoric Earth which includes the continent Middle-earth....
and Orcs, — those who possessed fëarFëa and hröaIn J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, fëa and hröa are words for "soul" and "body". The plural form of fëa is fëar and the plural form of hröa is hröar...
or souls, with the defining characteristic of being able to speak; - Self-incarnates or the ValarVala (Middle-earth)The Valar are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. They are first mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, but The Silmarillion develops them into the Powers of Arda or the Powers of the World...
and MaiarMaia (Middle-earth)The Maiar are beings from J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy legendarium. They are lesser Ainur who entered Eä in the beginning of time. Tolkien uses the term Valar to refer both to all the Ainur who entered Eä, and specifically to the greatest among them, the fourteen Lords and Queens of the Valar...
— "angelic" spirits that "arrayed" themselves in bodily forms of the Incarnates or of animals, able to communicate both by thought and speech; - Animals, without the soul and unable to speak.
For some time Tolkien considered the Eagles as bird-shaped Maiar; however, later he realised that the statement about Gwaihir and Landroval's descent from Thorondor had already appeared in print in The Lord of the Rings, while the notion of the "Children" of the Valar and Maiar had been rejected by him long before. In the last of his notes on this topic, dated by his son to late 1950s, Tolkien decided that the Great Eagles were common animals that had been "taught language by the Valar, and raised to a higher level — but they still had no fëar."
Nevertheless, a different conception may be present in a yet later essay on the origin of the Ent
Ent
Ents are a race of beings in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world Middle-earth who closely resemble trees. They are similar to the talking trees in folklore around the world. Their name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for giant....
s which, according to Christopher Tolkien, is likely to derive from 1963 and was included into the published Silmarillion. Contemporary J. R. R. Tolkien's notes define the Ents as "either souls sent to inhabit trees, or else that slowly took to the likeness of trees"; the essay agrees in this, adding that the Ents appeared shortly after the Awakening of the Elves, when "the thought of Yavanna ... [summoned] spirits from afar". Apparently the same origin for the Great Eagles is implied by the speech of Manwë within the essay: "... before the Children awake there shall go forth with wings like the wind the Eagles of the Lords of the West. ... In the mountains the Eagles shall house, and hear the voices of those who call upon [the Valar]."
However, the spirits summoned by Yavanna come to Arda
Arda
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Arda is the name given to the Earth in a period of prehistory, wherein the places mentioned in The Lord of the Rings and related material once existed...
only after the Awakening of the Elves; nevertheless the eagles, according to Manwë, already would exist "before the Children awake”. Given this, the eagles would not have been among the spirits summoned by Yavanna in that paragraph, suggesting that Tolkien didn’t change from the view that the eagles are animals, and have no fëar. They would be like dragons: they have inside themselves a "part" of their creator, which defines their conduct, or their “programming”.
Adaptations and influences
Humphrey Carpenter
Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster.-Biography:...
recorded that "virtually all walking was dispensed with in the story and the Company of the Ring were transported everywhere on the backs of eagles".
The Rankin Bass animated version of the Hobbit portrayed the eagles as similar in physique and appearance to Harpy, crowned or monkey-eating eagles of the tropics, while Jackson's trilogy provided a more traditional interpretation, with birds similar to the Golden Eagle
Golden Eagle
The Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...
.
In The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
directed by Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
, these creatures are 6 m (20 ft) tall with a maximum wingspan of 23 m (75 ft). A notable deviation from the book is that Gandalf summons Gwaihir to Orthanc with the aid of a by-passing moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
(the role of Radagast was not included in the film). The same moth also appears to him before the Eagles arrive at the Battle of the Morannon. According to fantasy artist Larry Dixon, the digitally animated eagles in the trilogy were based on a stuffed Golden Eagle
Golden Eagle
The Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...
he had offered to Weta Workshop
Weta Workshop
Weta Workshop is a special effects and prop company based in Miramar, New Zealand, producing effects for television and film.Founded in 1987 by Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger as RT Effects, Weta Workshop has produced creatures and makeup effects for the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys...
for use in the project.
Although giant birds of prey appear in legends of many cultures, Tolkien's Great Eagles may have been the direct inspiration for similar creatures in various modern fantasy genres, such as the Giant eagles
Giant eagle (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the giant eagle is a magical beast. As its name fairly obviously implies, it is a giant version of a regular eagle. It is also a lot more intelligent...
in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
.
Big birds as powerful creatures are included in many fantasy worlds. In some of the worlds, Griffins replace eagles.