Other Mearas?

[Sharkû]

Yes, Letter 268 tells us: "I think Shadowfax certainly went with Gandalf [across the Sea], though this is not stated." (Letters, #268)

Firefoot being of the Mearas is speculation, but likely speculation.

thanks for that sharku

[symestreem]

...And upon the quay beside a great grey horse stood a figure robed in all white awaiting them...

Yet Shadowfax's coat

shine[s] like silver

Legolas calls him

a very great horse

So was the horse that Gandalf had at the quay Shadowfax?
Also, why could Shadowfax alone of all free animals withstand the fear of the Nazgul? Was he the mightiest of the Mearas?

[Cibbwin]

And what about Windfola?

symestreem, I'm not sure if he was "mightiest", but don't forget that Gandalf had Narya. Perhaps it kindled Shadowfax's heart, as well?

[symestreem]

This was in ths Sil.

Of those horses many of the sire came from Valinor, and they were given to Fingolfin by Maedhros in atonement for his losses...

Perhaps the Mearas were elven in origin? If not, could we expect the elven horses to be the equals of the Mearas, coming as they both did from Valinor? Perhaps the elvish horses would even be slightly better, because they would have been bred with each other, while the Mearas might have sometimes been bred with other horses.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

Was he the mightiest of the Mearas?

Perhaps...

[Theoden: ]There is none like to Shadowfax. In him one of the mighty steeds of old has returned.

(LotR III 6)

Probably Felaróf himself was the mentioned "mighty steeds of old."

Do the mearas undergo reincarnation? Or perhaps had the same doom as Elves?

[symestreem]

That's quite interesting if you note the king's choice of wording. He says returned. This implies that the horses have dwindled in quality since a certain point in time before, probably the taming of the first horse. But why would the quality of the horses have decreased? I'm not a horse expert, but if you breed horses with other good horses, won't you usually get better horses? This is interesting because Tolkien is echoing his general theme of decay here; even the horses are not what they once were. There's another line like that in the Appendices.

... but in Elessar Telcontir the dignity of the kings of old was renewed.

Why does Tolkien incorporate the theme of decay so much? Numenor decays and falls; the Shire decays through progress. Did Tolkien, too, feel that nothing now or in the future could ever be better than what had already been? I read somewhere that growing up near Birmingham gave him a dislike of "progress" and "industrialization"; this is evident in the Shire.
Or does the answer somehow lie with the elves? As the elves fade, does their absence diminish the "goodness" of the world? Or is it the theory of entropy, heat-death, that the Universe is slowing down? In Middle-earth, this would be interpreted as that the tendency of man is to deteriorate; that there will always be another evil, and that all we can do is fight the present one, but that each victory over evil will still diminish the world a bit.
Does this make any sense at all?


Nilpaurion, if you talk about equine reincarnation then you have to debate the point of whether the horses have souls. Certainly they are intelligent, but do they have souls? Or is there something there besides a soul that can be reincarnated? Or perhaps because of the horse-centered culture of the Rohirrim, they believe that any mighty steed is a reincarnation of a previous one. That would indicate that the Rohirrim believe in the theory of decay, that nothing now can be as good as it was before; this either makes them rather astute observers or very nostalgic. Or, they have low self-esteem (or are humble) and think that nothing they do could be better than what their ancestors have done. This may be, considering their ancestor reverence (not worship).
We started out talking about horses, didn't we? Sorry.