The Lord Of the Rings: How it should have ended

[PrinceOfTheHalflings]

I think one of the false assumptions many people make is somehow assuming that flight by Eagle would be more or less instantaneous. It's a bird, not a jet aircraft! It has to stop, eat, rest. So does Frodo - so he's going to need to carry supplies (adding weight).

In reality the Eagles could only fly so fast and for so long - carrying a passenger would slow them down even more. It would still take a considerable period of time for an Eagle to carry Frodo all the way from Rivendell to Mordor, and then the flight across Mordor would take some hours at the very least. All the time the Eagle is vulnerable to attack. It's all very well saying that the Nazgul are out of action at the time of the Council of Elrond, but our heroes don't know that, and realistically by the time an Eagle (carrying Frodo) makes it all the way to Mordor the Nazgul could be up and running again.

There's also the problem of Frodo being able to destroy the Ring. It's all very well to say that Frodo had no trouble setting the Ring down on a table at the Council of Elrond - but that's not the same as destroying it, is it? Frodo couldn't even throw the Ring into the fire at Bag End!

The power of the Ring increases as it get closer to its point of origin. Nobody could destroy it in the Cracks of Doom - Isildur couldn't, and he had Elrond and Cirdan standing beside him urging him to destroy it!

The point of the story is that nobody could destroy the Ring of their own free will - it took an act of Providence, related to Frodo's mercy, to allow the Ring to be destroyed - no amount of shenanigans with Eagles makes any difference. I mean, even Peter Jackson understood that part of the story! Why do some people have difficulty with this?

[narfforc]

I have seen this a number of times over the years and it is funny......however, if you read Letters (June 58), a film script had been sent to Tolkien for his approval. His comments follow....'Here we meet the first intrusion of the Eagles. I think they are a major mistake of Zimmermans, and without warrant. The Eagles are a dangerous 'machine'. I have used them sparingly, and that is the absolute limit of their credibility or usefulness. The alighting of a Great Eagle of the Misty Mountains in the Shire is absurd........' He later in the letter states, '......the Eagles are again introduced. I feel this to be wholly unacceptable tampering with the tale.' Nine Walkers' and they immediately go up in the air'. So we may well have seen that ending a long time ago.