Quote:
Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc
Why so complicated? Eru would have used the Eagles to save Gandalf, that's his intervention. So in fact one cannot pass this "what would Eru do if the Eagles didn't turn up in time", as that's what he actually did, I would say. I think we are actually facing something here, Form is right and it never occured to me before:
Of course Eru would intervene. He intervenes here, I am sure. Form says it pretty well! What are the Eagles? Aren't they the device that comes up only in really important parts of the story? Are they not appearing only a few times of world-shaking importance - and one might as well ask, why the heck are they appearing now? We just gave ourselves the answer: to save Gandalf! To put it in a bit silly phrased words, "this was not the day for him to die yet".
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I think this is right, the Eagles act largely as Eru's emissaries in Middle Earth, saving Gandalf at various times (in the Hobbit, then saving him from Saruman's prison at Orthanc, then carrying him from the peak of Zirakzigil), and then saving Frodo and Sam from the eruption of Mount Doom.
However, perhaps the strongest evidence that the Eagles are Eru's emissaries comes from
what they did not do. At any time I think the Eagles could have made a surgical strike into Mordor with Frodo (or whatever Ringbearer) as their passenger, reaching Mount Doom before any intervention would be possible. The fact that they did not do this indicates to me that they operate at the behest of Eru, who refrained from directly intervening in the destruction of the Ring (or for that matter, the destruction of Sauron)...