Are they all stupid?
 

Anybody ever wonder why they didn't just ask Gwaihir, the great eagle to fly Frodo directly to Mount Doom. He could have outran any Nazgul pursuers, and wouldn't be tempted by the ring, since he was an eagle. Plus, if Frodo claimed the ring, he could just drop him into the fires. Bye Bye Frodo.

If I recall corectly, I think Gandalf said somthing about that. I think he said that the evil and power in Mordor was to great for Gwaihir.

Go to the "Books" forum, and read the thread "The Great Eagle Mystery". I think your question will be answered.

Not much for long stories, are you, Keeper of Dol Goldur?
Sorry...I like the adventures! But then again, I never do anything the easy way! Even in my alternate life here in ME!!!

Although you have to admit, it would have been pretty funny had Gwaihir, at the end of the book, flown up to Frodo and said something like,
"Y'know, I could have flown you to that darned mountain, and we would have been done with this thing before Christmas! Guess Gandalf got a little forgetful in his old age. Oh well. At least you got some exercise on this journey, and met some cool spiders! Should have asked Shelob for an autograph! It's not every day you meet the nastiest creature in Middle Earth! Wanna watch me do spirals in the air?"
Frodo would then proceed to pummel the heck out of Gandalf. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Lush, ROTFLMBFHO!!! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] That was good.

Why bother to take Frodo at all then? If Gwahir is immune to the temptations of the ring because he is an eagle with no fingers, just shove the ring in his beak and get him to drop it at the appropriate point. Then bye-bye sauron, everybody can go home!

But in all seriousnes, I do not beleive that Gwaihir could have taken the Ring to Mount Doom. It would have been interesting to see if it would have happened that way, though.

In every instances, Gwaihir and the Eagles are there to resuce the people of the the books. I think, MHO, the Ring had to willing be distroyed. - I know, some will argue here on this point - but I don't want to spoil anything. What I mean to say is that Frodo, yes and Sam, willing carried the ring to Mount Doom with the full purpose of distroying it.

The ring had no power of Gwaihir, the other Eagles, nor Tom Bombadil, therefore, in my opinion, it would have been impossible for them to distroy it. It would have to be carried by someone who the ring could have control over, but strong enough in spirit/mind/character to endure and overcome the power and lust for the ring.

[ February 19, 2002: Message edited by: Joy ]

~drying tears of laughter from face after reading Lush's post~
Joy, I agree with you 100% [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
Lush, you come up with some [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img] stuff! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Thanks for the laugh Lush!

No, I agree, with Joy, it had to be willingly destroyed, and having someone there who wished for it's Death, I think did the trick [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I dont agree that the destroyer had to be willing to do the task. Gollum certainly wasn't willing to destroy the ring, but he did. Out of the hobbits Sam was the only one who wanted it to be destroyed in the end and he had nothing to do with its destruction (so far as the fight between Frodo and Gollum goes).

So, I think Gwaihir could have done it. I dont know the full reason, but the reason I think Gwaihir didn't carry Frodo to Mount Doom or just take the Ring himself was because it would have been impossible for him to do so. The Nazgul were faster than eagles and there is no way that an eagle could come close to Mordor without Sauron noticing it. And this is only made worse if you beleive that eagles were Maia. Sauron would be able to sense them even more then.

So I hope that answers your question. The eagles would have been killed by the Nazgul if they tried to destroy the ring themselves. There is no way they could have gotten into Mordor unnoticed.

I try.

I like your theory, Elendur. Goes off to ponder such heady words... [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

*claps* Well said, Elendur. I was about to point out the itsy bitsy problem of the Nazgul myself.

Namárië,
Lúthien

Hmmm... Interesting. Never thought of that. *goes off to ponder such profound words*

I don't know if agree with that, though... The Ring, although being very creepy and evil, was just an object. Therefore, it could have been destroyed in Mt. Doom by the eagles or by Tom Bombadil, but they would not have agreed to it. Since they weren't touched by it, it had no power over them, giving them power of free will, over Sauron. That would be enough to conquer Sauron, but it would have made for a boring story.

"Here Tom, take it to Mt. Doom for me-PLEASE!"
"Well, OK, tell Goldberry I'll be a bit late tonight."

And so Tom Bombadil calls for the eagles. They fly into the heart of Mordor where they drop the Ring into the fiery pit of Mt. Doom. Sauron and his evil forces vanish, allowing Tom to make it home by dinner, where Goldberry prepares a huge feast in honour of their triumph.

hmm... not sure that's as interesting as Tolkien's version. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I think that the eagles couldn't have taken Frodo or the Ring to Mordor because the Ring was MEANT to come to Frodo and so Frodo had to do what he could with what he had.

In one of the other discussions a wise man once said:

~never underestamate the power of being underestamated~

I think by being underestamated Frodo was able to carry out his mission more unnoticed. If the eagles had carried him he would certanly be kinda obvious flying into Mordor, and so the Nasgul and Saron would have done every thing they could to stop the eagles and who knows where the Ring might have ended up.

I have often thought of this very idea over the years. But Even if the Eagles couldn't take frodo all the way to Mordor couldn't they at least have given him a lift to say, Ithillien, to shorten his trip? Then the whole war of the ring would have been avoided by arriving before Sauron was aware the ring had even left Rivendel.

In theory, maybe the eagles could have taken him for part of the way, but the flying Nazgul were patrolling the skies. And something else has just occurred to me. The Ring has an evil will (that's not what just occurred to me..keep reading...). It slipped from Gollum's hand on purpose. Frodo often talks of the Ring becoming very heavy, almost unbearably so. It had occurred to me that perhaps were Gwaihir to attempt to carry Frodo and the Ring (or evenjust the Ring), the Ring might "realize" what's going on, so to speak, and make itself too great a burden for the Eagle Lord. Also, although the Eagles help Gandalf on occasion, they don't really care all that much for men or elves. I don't think that Gwaihir would agree to carry the Ring even if he could. He wouldn't want to carry the fate of peoples he cares little of, save a few individuals.

That's just my two cents. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Namárië,
Lúthien

Geez, how BORING would that be? [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] Besides, the Eye of Sauron would have seen them pretty quickly, and those big, winged things the Nazgul rode would have eaten them for supper!

Well, If you think about it, Sam carried Frodo up mount doom and did not feel the burden of the ring.

In fact, given that the text is fictional, writing it would appear to have been entirely unnecessary.

I think it says somewhere that the eagles were faster than the Nazgal.

I think the eagles probably felt the same way about the ring as Tom Bombadil did. Gwaihir didn't mind lending a helping hand to Gandalf and his friends (namely Frodo and Sam) but asking him to risk life and limb for something that largely concerned the "free peoples of Middle Earth" would've been a bit much.

Aside from that, I seriously doubt that Gwaihir could've stood up to the Nine unless he had an army in which case the point of secrecy would be utterly defeated.