Gollum and Eagles: Deux ex machina?

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Essex

Gwahair sounded like a pretty sentient being to me......

But so do Shagrat and Gorbag. And Ugluk. And Grishnakh.

I can't agree with Tolkien about his own work here, if it's actually his idea. It doesn't seem to fit his understanding of evil. Beasts raised to a higher level? Maybe. But the language of the above named orcs strike me as being more akin to human sentience that has become extremely evil and cunning, especially in the case of Grishnakh (best orc Tolkien ever wrote!).