Hi! When I saw this topic, I hoped it might be about the general theme of animals in ME, such as the horses. Good or evil, the ones in THE HOBBIT get eaten! The only survivors of the innocent ponies are those Smaug didn't get around to eating before he was killed and those belonging to Beorn, because he had the sense to demand their return. In LOTR, however, the only horses killed are those belonging to the Ringwraiths, which might possibly have been stolen from Rohan, poor things, and Snowmane, who at least gets a hero's funeral. Does this say something about JRR's attitude? I don't know. He doesn't seem to like wolves very much, intelligent or not, there are no nice spiders and while the eagles are always good,ravens are often bad (not always - the ones in THE HOBBIT weren't). Maybe it's a bit like a reflection of the sentient races?
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