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Old 02-24-2004, 02:41 PM   #66
The Squatter of Amon Rûdh
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Of course any effect that the Eagles felt from the Ring would also be felt by Frodo. However, Tolkien does remark in Letter #181 that those of greater native power are in more danger from the Ring. If we think of the Eagles as Maiar (and this does raise serious questions about the reconciliation of their portrayal in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings), then we might argue that the danger was as great for them as it was for Gandalf, who did not trust himself even to touch it. Even if they are not Maiar, however, there are serious considerations to be made regarding their suitability to resist the Ring. Their evident pride and policy of open confrontation with Orcs are clear weaknesses against its temptations: the promise of a quick and easy solution, personal power and glory and the chance to fight Sauron on his own terms. Frodo, being relatively powerless and with very little will to control others, was a perfect choice for the task of carrying the Ring, since in him it had so little on which to work. The fact is, though, that deus ex machina or no, the Eagles are not portrayed as a group that can be relied upon to turn up whenever they are needed. In fact, if they were open and committed allies of the Wise then the epithet would no longer be applicable, since the advent of a deus ex machina must by definition be unexpected. I have not been arguing that Tolkien does not use the Eagles in this way, but that not asking them to carry the Ring is consistent with the narrative situation that Tolkien had created. I would argue that if we regard them as instruments of the divine will, then their interference at the Battle of Five Armies was necessary because the combined forces of Men, Elves and Dwarves were still outnumbered; and also because they had already fought and won the moral battle and were fighting with all their strength against the Goblins, which had earned them the right to assistance. However, since I regard the integration of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as problematic to say the least, I usually accept Tolkien's explanation that the Eagles followed their old enemies to the battle hoping with help to inflict a defeat, which is still consistent with the recurrent theme of divine providence taking a hand through the medium of apparent coincidence.

I might argue, moreover, that if we are to criticise authors for using devices to move their plots forward, then we will be condemning more authors than Tolkien to the dustbin of hackdom. The very presence of a plot entails the presence of plot devices, some used more often than others in the pursuit of the author's narrative ends. Tolkien uses the Eagles only in situations where their presence is plausible within his narrative reality, and they appear en masse only twice, at major battles. We may dislike his use of the Eagles, but I do not regard that as a flaw any more than I regard Pip's unlikely inheritance as a flaw in Great Expectations. Further on the subject of flaws in The Lord of the Rings, which is the subject of this thread, I would exclude from that flaws in Tolkien's notes for the book, or indeed any of the material that he rejected from it before submitting it for publication. The fact that he intended to send several of the Fellowship to Mordor at some stage in the book's development seems to me irrelevant, since he may have changed his mind precisely because he did see certain flaws in sending the plot in that direction. It seems to me grossly unfair to criticise someone for something that they chose to exclude from a work as though they had included it after all.

There was, of course, no way of predicting what would happen once the Fellowship of the Ring left Rivendell; but the failure of their quest was a certainty from the outset without the intercession of Eru, whoever carried the Ring. The Eagles are, however, less likely to undertake the Quest and are in any case not present at the Council. Frodo has volunteered, as have the remainder of the Fellowship, and to request the help of someone else is therefore unnecessary. Certainly I think that the main chance of success lay in getting the Ring to Mount Doom in such a way that Sauron was unaware that his enemies were in Mordor at all, since there is no way that he would empty his lands of troops if he believed that there was any danger of an incursion. Indeed he only sent out any of his forces when he believed that he knew the location of his Ring, the possession of which was, I think, a condition of his launching a full assault on Middle-earth. This policy renders futile any attempt to wait for his first stroke. In fact the very act of sending out the Fellowship sets in motion a chain of events that eliminates the threat of Saruman, prompts Sauron to make some very bad decisions and allows those decisions to destroy his plans. The Eagles could get to Mordor quickly, but on the way they would not prompt the Ents to rise; they would not look into Saruman's palantír, nor show Aragorn to Sauron in such a way that he appeared to have the Ring. They would not, therefore, cause Sauron to play his hand too early and empty his country of troops, whilst at the same time Rohan would be completely overwhelmed by Saruman. In this situation, sending a strong force to the Morannon as a diversion would not be a possibility: Gondor would need all of its troops to watch the borders against Saruman's forces, and in any case there would have been no reason for Sauron to believe that one of his enemies had the One Ring in his possession. Now, those present at the Council of Elrond have no way of knowing that any of these things will happen, but they can be sure that Mordor is too well defended for a frontal assault; they know the danger of the Ring to powerful individuals and they know that Sauron would never send his weakest servants into his enemies' country with a weapon that could ensure their victory, nor even consider such a policy. They have no history of planned collaboration with the Eagles and no reason to presume on their aid based on a few relatively minor favours for Gandalf, but they do have a number of volunteers. Given the choice between two impossible plans, one of which can be put into effect then and there, and the other of which requires the agreement of a group that has to be contacted by sending a force up into the mountains in winter, and whose assent cannot be guaranteed, the Council chooses the former. They choose the greater act of faith instead of the lesser, and are rewarded with success.

A lot has been said here about the refusal of the Valar to fight on the behalf of the people of Middle-earth. Firstly I should like to point out that they are no kind of gods, but have more in common with archangels. They are neither omniscient nor omnipotent, and there are certain decisions that are beyond their authority. In the case of Sauron, it is not an inability to 'deal with' him that holds them back, but the knowledge that if Men are to take up their dominion responsibly they must learn to fight their own battles. The help that is sent is understated not because the Valar are too frightened or too weak to provide something more substantial, but so that the majority of people in Middle-earth will be unaware that it was given at all. They are allowed to grow up instead of being tied to the Valar's apron strings for eternity, knowing that they can always rely on help from the Powers whenever things get difficult. There is also probably a hint here of lessons learned from the Elves, who eventually came to regard Valinor as a prison and the Valar as gaolers when the original intention was to provide them with a haven. Besides, that which is hard-won is usually valued more and preserved longer than that which simply comes as a matter of course. Naturally given that premise it becomes valid to intercede once the speaking peoples have already done their utmost to achieve victory, but are faced with a situation that it is beyond their abilities to overcome. This brings me back to the act of faith implicit in sending Frodo with the Ring. He does his utmost to destroy it, and because he does his best, at the final crisis there is someone present to take the Ring from him and save him from an ultimate fall. When the Eagles rescue him he has exhausted his strength and is unable to escape on his own, so again this is a valid intervention given the paradigm; and since the Eagles have been present at the Morannon, Gandalf's request that they rescue Frodo (whose actions have saved their lives) is also plausible within the narrative structure. Like it or not, this sprang from Tolkien's world-view, which was naturally a strong influence on his writing. If writing a story that reflects one's philosophical and theological opinions is a flaw then clearly one ought to set aside one's beliefs when writing so as to eliminate such failings. I would not expect reading to be much fun if this became standard practice.
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