Why wouldn't Gandalf send the eagles with the Ring to Orodruin?

Well you see, Gandalf is divine himself, he's a Maiar which is in essence a lesser Valar. The Eagle was at his beck and call when he was trapped on the tower because the Valar sent Gandalf on a mission to guide and counsel the people of middle-earth which he could not really accomplish if he was stuck up in Orthanc now could he?

And why would the Valar be a neutral force? They are in essence good, wanting to help Elves and Men, but they can't do it anymore, cause whenever they directly interfere things get messed up. Their is no neutrality in Tolkiens world. Their is Good and Evil, which is what makes the story so classic. Not very complex...but classic.
 
I'm with Dozmonic on this: The eagles would be overly tempted by power. Gandalf and Galadriel were obliged to avoid it.

In almost any endeavor, I most trust the person who is least likely to lord it over the others. It is always too much work to salve the limitless need for self congratulation that most marks those we consider "leaders."
 
It would have been a folly of the highest order to try and use the eagles to fly the ring to Mount Doom.

Consider:

  • Firstly the eagles would have to consent to it.
  • Frodo would also have to either consent to giving up the ring or agree to be flown all the way to Mordor.
  • If not Frodo, someone else or the eagles themselves would have had to carry the ring and, as the ring could look after itself, the carrier would almost certainly have been corrupted by it.
  • If Frodo had ridden an eagle, he still may not have been able to destroy the ring at the very last. There would have been no Gollum to save the day. The mission would have depended entirely upon Frodo resisting the ring.
  • It would have hardly have been a mission of stealth. The eagles would most likely have flown straight through Sauron's eyeline. Most likely the Dark Lord had servants available to intercept, and also could have focused on and pressurised the ringbearer directly.
Gandalf knew in his heart that there were no easy solutions. He felt that Gollum had a role to play. He was aware that Aragorn had a destiny to fulfill and Saruman had to be dealt with. These and other things may well have gone differently, even if a rash gamble such as this had somehow succeeded.
 
A good chuckle, that one!

"Saaaaauuuuroooooooon! You suck! THPPPPPPPPT!" Priceless.
 
They would not have thought of the Eagles as a kind of "airforce" in the way that we might today. You may get to use them in video games but in the canon texts I really doubt they would think of them in such ways.
 
Menion said:
Its a cartoon video of how The Lord Of The Rings should have ended, ill leave youall to watch it.
Click to expand...

As I was watching that, I kept having visions of Gandalf saying, "Drop it," and the eagle dropping Frodo into the lava.
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
As I was watching that, I kept having visions of Gandalf saying, "Drop it," and the eagle dropping Frodo into the lava.
Click to expand...

Well I don't think Frodo would have been able to drop the ring, so dropping Frodo into Mount Doom might have been the only option!
 
If they had done it that way, it would certainly have answered the question of why Gandalf didn't send the eagles with the Ring to Mount Doom!

Alas that they chose another way.
 
As I was watching that, I kept having visions of Gandalf saying, "Drop it," and the eagle dropping Frodo into the lava.
Click to expand...
Me too! And when he finally did drop it and Gollum appeared, I was waiting for some sky-diving maneuvers before "splash-down"...:D

I like the Hobbit British accent comment at the end..."Can you imagine if we had walked all the way? Yeah, one of us might have died! Chortle chortle chuckle chuckle".

Good stuff.
 
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What I can't understand is how the winged Nazgul had air superiority when the Fellowship had SAM?
 
Or how about, "Because it would be as obvious a solution to Sauron as it would be to those who ask the question?" He's a immortal being as old as all Creation, and he's too stupid to look out for something as obvious as an eagle flying overhead?

But two Hobbits crawling over the vast wasteland of Mordor is improbable enough not to occur to him.
 
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