In
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...
's
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the ''Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is t ...
, the Eagles or Great Eagles,
[ "]The Council of Elrond
"The Council of Elrond" is the second chapter of Book 2 of J. R. R. Tolkien's bestselling fantasy work, ''The Lord of the Rings'', which was published in 1954–1955. It is the longest chapter in that book at some 15,000 words, and critical for e ...
"[, "Of the Ruin of Doriath"] were immense birds that were sapient and could speak. The Great Eagles resembled actual
eagle
Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...
s, but were much larger. Thorondor is said to have been the greatest of all birds, with a wingspan of .
[, "Of the Return of the Noldor"] Elsewhere, the eagles have varied in nature and size both within Tolkien's writings and in later adaptations.
Scholars have noticed that the Eagles appear as agents of ''
eucatastrophe
A eucatastrophe is a sudden turn of events in a story which ensures that the protagonist does not meet some terrible, impending, and very plausible and probable doom. The writer J. R. R. Tolkien coined the word by affixing the Greek prefix ''eu'' ...
'' or ''
deus ex machina
''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function ...
'' throughout Tolkien's writings, from ''
The Silmarillion
''The Silmarillion'' () is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavriel ...
'' and the accounts of
Númenor
Númenor, also called Elenna-nórë or Westernesse, is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. It was the kingdom occupying a large island to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was the greatest civil ...
to ''
The Hobbit
''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the '' ...
'' and ''
The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...
''. Where Elves are good, and fully sentient, and Orcs bad, Eagles and other races are in between; the
Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, ...
Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel ''The Hobbit'', a supporting character in ''The Lord of the Rings'', and the fictional narrator (along with Frodo Baggins) of many of Tolkien's Middle-eart ...
fears he will become their supper, torn up
like a rabbit, and is indeed served rabbit for supper. The scholar
Marjorie Burns Marjorie Burns is a scholar of English literature, best known for her studies of J. R. R. Tolkien.
Biography
Marjorie Jean Burns was born in 1940. She gained her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.
She is an emeritus professor of En ...
notes, too, that
Gandalf
Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. He is a Wizards (Middle-earth), wizard, one of the ''Istari'' order, and the leader of the Fellowship of the Ring (characters), Fellowship of t ...
's association with Eagles is reminiscent of the god
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...
in
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...
. Others have seen
Biblical echoes, especially when the Eagle-messenger sings of the final victory to
Faramir
Faramir is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''. He is introduced as the younger brother of Boromir of the Fellowship of the Ring (characters), Fellowship of the Ring and second son of Denethor, the Stewards o ...
in phrases reminiscent of
Psalm 24
Psalm 24 is the 24th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "The earth is the 's, and the fulness thereof". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible and the ...
.
Context
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...
was an English author and
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
of ancient
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Engli ...
, specialising in Old English; he spent much of his career as a professor at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
. He is best known for his novels about his invented
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the ''Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is t ...
, ''
The Hobbit
''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the '' ...
'' and ''
The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...
'', and for the posthumously published ''
The Silmarillion
''The Silmarillion'' () is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavriel ...
'' which provides a more mythical narrative about earlier ages. He invented
several peoples for Middle-earth, including
Elves
An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...
,
Dwarves,
Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, ...
s,
Orc
An Orc (or Ork) is a fictional humanoid monster like a goblin. Orcs were brought into modern usage by the fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially ''The Lord of the Rings''. In Tolkien's works, Orcs are a brutish, aggressive, ugly, a ...
s,
Trolls
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...
, and Eagles, among others. A devout
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
, he described ''The Lord of the Rings'' as "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work",
rich in Christian symbolism.
Appearances
First Age
Throughout ''
The Silmarillion
''The Silmarillion'' () is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavriel ...
'', the Eagles are associated with
Manwë Manwë refers to:
* Manwë (Middle-earth), the husband of the Elvish goddess Varda in Tolkien's mythology
*385446 Manwë
385446 Manwë , or (385446) Manwë–Thorondor , is a binary resonant Kuiper belt object in a 4:7 mean-motion resonance with ...
, the ruler of the sky and Lord of the
Valar. 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
Valinor
Valinor ( Quenya'': Land of the Valar'') or the Blessed Realms is a fictional location in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the home of the immortal Valar on the continent of Aman, far to the west of Middle-earth; he used the name Aman mainly to m ...
,
[, "Of the Beginning of Days"] and in the ''
Valaquenta
''The Silmarillion'' () is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavriel ...
'' of "all swift birds, strong of wing".
[, "Valaquenta"] Upon their first appearance in the main narrative, it is stated that the Eagles had been "sent forth" to Middle-earth by Manwë, to live in the mountains north of the land of
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-e ...
, to "watch upon"
Morgoth
Morgoth Bauglir (; originally Melkor ) is a character, one of the godlike Valar, from Tolkien's legendarium. He is the main antagonist of ''The Silmarillion'', ''The Children of Húrin'', ''Beren and Lúthien'' and ''The Fall of Gondolin''.
...
,
and to help the exiled
Noldor
In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Noldor (also spelled Ñoldor, meaning ''those with knowledge'' in his constructed language Quenya) were a kindred of Elf (Middle-earth), Elves who migrated west to the blessed realm of Valinor from the conti ...
in Elves "in extreme cases".
[, "The Annals of Aman"] The Eagles were ruled by Thorondor, "Lord of the Eagles", and "mightiest of all birds that have ever been".
[, "Of the Noldor in Beleriand"][, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand"] When Turgon built the Hidden City of
Gondolin
In Tolkien's legendarium, Gondolin was a secret city of Elves in the First Age of Middle-earth. The story of the Fall of Gondolin tells of the founding of the city; of the arrival there of Tuor, a prince of Men; of the betrayal of the city to Mor ...
, the eagles of Thorondor became his allies, bringing him news and keeping spies and
Orc
An Orc (or Ork) is a fictional humanoid monster like a goblin. Orcs were brought into modern usage by the fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially ''The Lord of the Rings''. In Tolkien's works, Orcs are a brutish, aggressive, ugly, a ...
s off the borders.
[, "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin"][, "Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin", and note 25] The eagles' watch was redoubled after the coming of
Tuor
Tuor Eladar and Idril Celebrindal are fictional characters from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. They are the parents of Eärendil the Mariner and grandparents of Elrond Half-elven: through their progeny, they became the ancestors ...
,
enabling Gondolin to remain undiscovered the longest of all Elven realms. When the city fell, the eagles protected the fugitives from ambushing orcs.
The Eagles fought alongside the army of the Valar, Elves, and Men during the
War of Wrath
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the history of Arda, also called the history of Middle-earth, began when the Ainu (Middle-earth), Ainur entered Arda (Middle-earth), Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of l ...
at the end of the
First Age
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the history of Arda, also called the history of Middle-earth, began when the Ainur entered Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of labour throughout Eä, the fictional univer ...
. In ''The Silmarillion'' it is recounted that after the appearance of winged
dragons
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
, "all the great birds of heaven" gathered under the leadership of Thorondor to
Eärendil, and destroyed the majority of the dragons in an aerial battle.
[, "Of the Voyage of Eärendil"]
Second Age
On the island of
Númenor
Númenor, also called Elenna-nórë or Westernesse, is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. It was the kingdom occupying a large island to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was the greatest civil ...
in the
Second Age
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the history of Arda, also called the history of Middle-earth, began when the Ainur entered Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of labour throughout Eä, the fictional univer ...
, three eagles guarded the summit of Meneltarma, appearing whenever anyone approached the hallow, and staying in the sky during the Three Prayers. The Númenóreans called them "the Witnesses of Manwë", believing he had sent them from Aman "to keep watch upon the Holy Mountain and upon all the land".
[, "A Description of Númenor"] Another eyrie upon the tower of the King's House in the capital Armenelos was always inhabited by a pair of eagles, until the days of Tar-Ancalimon and the coming of Shadow to Númenor.
Many eagles lived upon the hills around Sorontil in the north of the island.
When the Númenóreans began to speak openly against the
Ban of the Valar, Manwë appeared as eagle-shaped storm clouds, called the "Eagles of the Lords of the West", to try to reason with or threaten them.
[, "]Akallabêth
''The Silmarillion'' () is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavriel ...
"
Third Age
By the end of the
Third Age
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the history of Arda, also called the history of Middle-earth, began when the Ainu (Middle-earth), Ainur entered Arda (Middle-earth), Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of l ...
, a colony of Eagles lived in the north of the
Misty Mountains
The geography of Middle-earth encompasses the physical, political, and moral geography of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, strictly a continent on the planet of Arda but widely taken to mean the physical world, and ''Eä'', all ...
, as described in ''The Hobbit''. These Eagles opposed the goblins; however, their relationship with the local
Woodmen was only cool, as the eagles often hunted their sheep.
They rescued
Thorin's company from a band of goblins and
Warg
In the philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction, a warg is a particularly large and evil kind of wolf that could be ridden by orcs. He derived the name and characteristics of his wargs by combining meanings and myth ...
s,
ultimately carrying the dwarves to the Carrock.
[, "Queer Lodgings"] Later, having seen the mustering of goblins in the Mountains, a great flock of Eagles participated in the Battle of the Five Armies.
[, "The Return Journey"]
In ''The Lord of the Rings'', the Eagles of the Misty Mountains helped the Elves of Rivendell and the
Wizard Radagast
Radagast the Brown is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Tolkien's legendarium, legendarium. A Wizard (Middle-earth), wizard and associate of Gandalf, he appears briefly in ''The Hobbit'', ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Silmarillion'' ...
to gather news of the Orcs.
[, "The Ring Goes South"; "A Journey in the Dark"] Gwaihir
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the Eagles or Great Eagles, "The Council of Elrond", "Of the Ruin of Doriath" were immense birds that were sapient and could speak. The Great Eagles resembled actual eagles, but were much larger. Thorondor is s ...
the Windlord carries news to
Isengard
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings, Isengard () is a large fortress in Nan Curunír, the Wizard's Vale, in the western part of Middle-earth. In the fantasy world, the name of the fortress is described as a translation of Angrenost, a word ...
, rescues Gandalf from the top of the tower there, and again rescues Gandalf from the top of Celebdil after searching for him at
Galadriel
Galadriel (IPA: Help:IPA, aˈladri.ɛl is a Character (arts), character created by J. R. R. Tolkien in his Middle-earth writings. She appears in ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Silmarillion'', and ''Unfinished Tales''.
She ...
's request.
[, "The White Rider"] and he and his Eagles appear in great numbers towards the end of the book. The Eagles similarly arrive at the
Battle of the Morannon
In J. R. R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel ''The Lord of the Rings'', the Battle of the Morannon or the Battle of the Black Gate, is the final confrontation in the War of the Ring. Gondor and its allies send a small army ostensibly to challenge Sau ...
, helping the Host of the West against the
Nazgûl
The Nazgûl (from Black Speech , "ring", and , "wraith, spirit"), introduced as Black Riders and also called Ringwraiths, Dark Riders, the Nine Riders, or simply the Nine, are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. They were ...
, while Gwaihir, Landroval, and Meneldor rescue
Frodo Baggins
Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, and one of the protagonists in ''The Lord of the Rings''. Frodo is a hobbit of the Shire who inherits the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins, described familiarly as "u ...
and
Samwise Gamgee
Samwise Gamgee (, usually called Sam) is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. A hobbit, Samwise is the chief supporting character of ''The Lord of the Rings'', serving as the sidekick of the protagonist Frodo Baggins. Sam ...
from
Mount Doom
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor (pronounced ; from Sindarin ''Black Land'' and Quenya ''Land of Shadow'') is the realm and base of the evil Sauron. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to ...
after the
One Ring
The One Ring, also called the Ruling Ring and Isildur's Bane, is a central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'' (1954–55). It first appeared in the earlier story ''The Hobbit'' (1937) as a magic ring that grants the w ...
had been destroyed.
[ "The Field of Cormallen"]
Analysis
Origins
![Archibald Thorburn, Pair of Golden Eagles](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Archibald_Thorburn%2C_Pair_of_Golden_Eagles._Bonhams.jpg)
Tolkien's painting of an eagle on a crag appears in some editions of ''The Hobbit''. According to
Christopher Tolkien
Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (21 November 1924 – 16 January 2020) was an English academic editor, becoming a French citizen in later life. The son of author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien edited much of his father' ...
, the author based this picture on a painting by the Scottish
ornithological
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
artist
Archibald Thorburn
Archibald Thorburn FZS (31 May 1860, Lasswade, Midlothian – 9 October 1935, Hascombe, Surrey) was a Scottish artist who specialised in wildlife, painting mostly in watercolour. He regularly visited Scotland to sketch birds in the wild, his f ...
[ plate 9] of an immature
golden eagle
The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of p ...
, which Christopher found for him in
Thomas Coward
Thomas Alfred Coward (8 January 1867 – 29 January 1933), was an English ornithologist and an amateur astronomer. He wrote extensively on natural history, local history and Cheshire.
Life
He was born at 8 Higher Downs, Bowdon, Cheshire ( ...
's 1919 book ''The Birds of the British Isles and Their Eggs''.
[, Foreword to the 50th-anniversary edition]
The Great Eagles appeared in "The Fall of Gondolin", the first tale about Middle-earth that Tolkien wrote in the late 1910s.
[ "The Fall of Gondolin"] In Tolkien's early writings, the eagles were distinguished from other birds:
Eä
The cosmology of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium combines aspects of Christian theology and metaphysics with pre-modern cosmological concepts in the flat Earth paradigm, along with the modern spherical Earth view of the Solar System.
The created ...
, the World, was bounded by the Walls of Night, and the space above the Earth up to the Walls was divided into three regions;
[, "Ambarkanta"] common birds could keep aloft only within the lower layer,
[, "The Fall of Númenor", (i)] while the Eagles of Manwë could fly "beyond the lights of heaven to the edge of darkness".
[, "Ainulindalë"] The eagle-shaped clouds that appeared in Númenor formed one of Tolkien's recurring images of the
downfall of the island;
[, "The Notion Club Papers"] they appear, too, in his
abandoned time-travel stories, ''
The Lost Road
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' and ''
The Notion Club Papers
''The Notion Club Papers'' is 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 time travel story, written while ''The Lord of t ...
''.
[, "The Lost Road", (ii)]
Sentient beings
Tolkien faced the question of the Great Eagles' nature 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
The cosmology of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium combines aspects of Christian theology and metaphysics with pre-modern cosmological concepts in the flat Earth paradigm, along with the modern spherical Earth view of the Solar System.
The created ...
upon its creation;
[, "Quenta Silmarillion", §2] and such sapient creatures as the Eagles or
Huan the Hound, in Tolkien's own words, "have been rather lightly adopted from less 'serious' mythologies".
[, "Myths Transformed", VIII] The phrase "spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles" in ''The Silmarillion'' derives from that stage of writing.
After completing ''The Lord of the Rings'', Tolkien moved toward a more carefully defined "system" of creatures. At the top were incarnates or Children of Ilúvatar: Elves and Men, those who possessed ''
fëar'' or souls, with the defining characteristic of being able to speak;
[, "Quendi and Eldar"] next were self-incarnates, the
Valar and
Maiar, "angelic" spirits that "arrayed" themselves in bodily forms of the incarnates or of animals,
[, "Myths Transformed", (VIII)] and were able to communicate both by thought and speech;
and finally animals, mere beasts, unable to speak. For some time Tolkien considered the Eagles as bird-shaped Maiar;
however, 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 he had long before rejected the notion of their being "Children" of the Valar and Maiar.
[, "The Annals of Aman"; "The Later ''Quenta Silmarillion''", ch. 1] In the last of his notes on this topic, dated by his son Christopher to the late 1950s, Tolkien decided that the Great Eagles were animals that had been "taught language by the Valar, and raised to a higher level—but they still had no ''fëar''
ouls"
The Tolkien scholars
Paul Kocher and
Tom Shippey
Thomas Alan Shippey (born 9 September 1943) is a British medievalist, a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the ...
note that in ''The Hobbit'', the narrator provides a firm moral framework, with good elves, evil goblins, and the other peoples like dwarves and eagles somewhere in between. Shippey remarks that the eagles are in the narrator's "euphemistic" words, "not kindly birds".
[, "Out of the Frying-Pan and into the Fire"] Marjorie Burns Marjorie Burns is a scholar of English literature, best known for her studies of J. R. R. Tolkien.
Biography
Marjorie Jean Burns was born in 1940. She gained her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.
She is an emeritus professor of En ...
comments that the "threat of being eaten
y the Eagle
Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate Letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some auth ...
is so dominant" that the Hobbit Bilbo, who the Eagle described as being
rather like a rabbit, is afraid of being torn up and eaten; he is relieved that he is not to become their supper, "but rabbit is precisely what the eagles do bring them for supper".
Norse mythology
![Bracteate from Funen, Denmark (DR BR42)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Bracteate_from_Funen%2C_Denmark_%28DR_BR42%29.jpg)
In
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...
, eagles were associated with the god
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...
; for example, he escapes from
Jotunheim back to
Asgard
In Nordic mythology, Asgard (Old Norse: ''Ásgarðr'' ; "enclosure of the Æsir") is a location associated with the gods. It appears in a multitude of Old Norse sagas and mythological texts. It is described as the fortified home of the Æsir ...
as an eagle. Burns remarks the similarity with Gandalf, who repeatedly escapes by riding on an eagle. She comments that Tolkien's Eagles, like his Dwarves, Dragons, and Trolls, all signal Norse influence on his stories.
''Deus ex machina''
Burns notes that Tolkien uses the Eagles three times to save his protagonists: to rescue Bilbo and company in ''The Hobbit''; to lift Gandalf from imprisonment by Saruman in the tower of
Orthanc
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings, Isengard () is a large fortress in Nan Curunír, the Wizard's Vale, in the western part of Middle-earth. In the fantasy world, the name of the fortress is described as a translation of Angrenost, a word ...
; and finally, to save Frodo and Sam from
Mount Doom
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor (pronounced ; from Sindarin ''Black Land'' and Quenya ''Land of Shadow'') is the realm and base of the evil Sauron. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to ...
when they have destroyed the
One Ring
The One Ring, also called the Ruling Ring and Isildur's Bane, is a central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'' (1954–55). It first appeared in the earlier story ''The Hobbit'' (1937) as a magic ring that grants the w ...
. The Tolkien scholar
Jane Chance Jane Chance (born 1945), also known as Jane Chance Nitzsche, is an American scholar specializing in medieval English literature, gender studies, and J. R. R. Tolkien. She spent most of her career at Rice University, where since her retirement she ha ...
describes these interventions as a ''
deus ex machina
''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function ...
'', a sudden and unexpected mechanism to bring about a
eucatastrophe
A eucatastrophe is a sudden turn of events in a story which ensures that the protagonist does not meet some terrible, impending, and very plausible and probable doom. The writer J. R. R. Tolkien coined the word by affixing the Greek prefix ''eu'' ...
. The screenwriter Brad Johnson, writing on ''Script'', argues that this last ''deus ex machina'' instance is a complete surprise to the audience, and undesirable as the sudden appearance of the Eagles "takes the audience out of the scene emotionally".
Tolkien was aware of this problem, recognising the risky nature of the mechanism; in one of his
letters
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
, he wrote:
Biblical messenger
![GRM Inv](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/GRM_Inv._J-3182.jpg)
Shippey notes that throughout ''The Lord of the Rings'' Tolkien carefully avoided direct reference to Christianity, so as not to make the story an
allegory
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
. He comments however that in one place "Revelation seems very close and allegory does all but break through", namely the eucatastrophic moment when the eagle-messenger sings to
Faramir
Faramir is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''. He is introduced as the younger brother of Boromir of the Fellowship of the Ring (characters), Fellowship of the Ring and second son of Denethor, the Stewards o ...
about Frodo and Sam's destruction of the One Ring:
Shippey writes that this is certainly Biblical, indeed that it is specifically in the style of
Psalm 24
Psalm 24 is the 24th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "The earth is the 's, and the fulness thereof". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible and the ...
in the
King James Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...
of the Bible, with its phrases "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, for the King of glory shall come in". E. L. Risden, making a different connection with Christianity, describes the Eagles' rescue of Frodo and Sam as a "ritual rebirth", and the rescuing bird as "a symbol of the spirit",
John the Evangelist
John the Evangelist ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs; Aramaic: ܝܘܚܢܢ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ; ar, يوحنا الإنجيلي, la, Ioannes, he, יוחנן cop, ⲓⲱⲁⲛⲛⲏⲥ or ⲓⲱ̅ⲁ) is the name traditionally given t ...
's traditional symbol.
Adaptations
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 Tolkien's biographer
Humphrey Carpenter
Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter (29 April 1946 – 4 January 2005) was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster. He is known especially for his biographies of J. R. R. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inkli ...
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".
According to the fantasy artist
Larry Dixon, the digitally animated eagles in
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...
's
''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy were based on a stuffed
golden eagle
The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of p ...
he had provided to
Weta Workshop.
A genus of
Diapriid wasps in Australia was named ''
Gwaihiria'' in 1982.
In ''
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North'', an eagle named Beleram acts as a supporting character, aiding the players in battle.
References
Primary
::''This list identifies each item's location in Tolkien's writings.''
Secondary
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eagle (Middle-Earth)
Middle-earth races
Middle-earth animals
Fictional birds of prey
Talking animals in fiction