[The Saucepan Man]

This is the first question that I asked when I joined the Downs. Yes, even some of us mods (or one of us at least) failed to spot the search function when we first joined. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

The thread that Esty linked to has a lot of interesting thoughts, and is quite fun too. But I think that the issue is still open to debate. I've never bought this idea that the Eagles were reluctant to get involved in the affairs of the Free Peoples. After all, they helped out when it was really necessary. And it was rather necessary that the Ring be destroyed.

Of course, even if the Eagles had flown Frodo over Mount Doom, he couldn't have thrown the Ring in. He would have succumbed to it the same way that he did at Sammath Naur. And an Eagle bearing the Ring couldn't have dropped it in either, since no Ringbearer could willingly have destroyed it (unless they got Tom Bombadil to so it, but he wasn't interested).

So perhaps they could have dropped Frodo in, Ring and all. [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]

But if that had been the plan of the Wise, would they really have been any better than Sauron?

A better plan would have been to capture an Orc, give the Ring to him and then throw him in. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Seriously, I think that the answer is that the Eagles wouldn't have made it to Mount Doom. But would the Nazgul really have been able to stop a fleet of Eagles?