# HISHE: Eagles help drop One Ring into Mount Doom? Ramifications? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 3, 2015, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hishe-eagles-help-drop-one-ring-into-mount-doom-ramifications/729862 "2015-09-03T21:47:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hishe-eagles-help-drop-one-ring-into-mount-doom-ramifications/729862/41 "2015-09-07T00:57:29Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Not a hope. It’s noted that Gandalf, Galdriel and Elrond are immune to him. We’d have to assume Cirdan would be as well. Nitpick, but I don’t think the books ever describe a meeting between Saruman and Galadriel or Elrond (at least at any time after the White Council scoured Dol Guldur.) Now, sure, it’s extremely likely that they, two, would have been immune to his blandishments. (Is it a coincidence that all three are Ringbearers? Cirdan gave up his ring… Something, by the way, that Gandalf said was extremely difficult to do. Maybe Cirdan has the greater strength of will, enough to give up a Great Ring…and maybe, lacking the ring he once bore, he’s weaker than the others, and Saruman might find his weakness. I concede it’s a longshot.) Saruman might also have gone to the camps of the Rangers in the north, where the second-string guys would have been left behind, when the A-Team rangers went south to join Aragorn after Helm’s Deep. Saruman might sweet-talk these guys. “Left behind! How shameful! They didn’t think you could hold your own against the dangers in the south. They left you here to keep the hearths warm…like women!” ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hishe-eagles-help-drop-one-ring-into-mount-doom-ramifications/729862/42 "2015-09-07T01:07:02Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Are you really suggesting that you are just as liable to have an evil pony as an evil angel? Dunno, some of them can be mean buggers. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hishe-eagles-help-drop-one-ring-into-mount-doom-ramifications/729862/43 "2015-09-07T09:22:37Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Elrond and the Great Lady were shown immune to Saruman’s voice after the resurrected and promoted Gandalf cast his former superior from the Istari order. Things might have been different before. We were specifically talking about after, so this is kind of irrelevant and meaningless. > [@Trinopus](#): > > Nitpick, but I don’t think the books ever describe a meeting between Saruman and Galadriel or Elrond (at least at any time after the White Council scoured Dol Guldur.) “The wise he could persuade, and the smaller folk he could daunt. That power he certainly still keeps. There are not many in Middle-earth that I should say were safe, if they were left alone to talk with him, even now when he has suffered a defeat. Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel, perhaps, now that his wickedness has been laid bare, but very few others.” > [@](#): > > Now, sure, it’s extremely likely that they, two, would have been immune to his blandishments. All but stated as fact. > [@](#): > > Is it a coincidence that all three are Ringbearers? Almost certainly. > [@](#): > > Cirdan gave up his ring… Something, by the way, that Gandalf said was extremely difficult to do. Where did he say that? > [@](#): > > Saruman might also have gone to the camps of the Rangers in the north, where the second-string guys would have been left behind, when the A-Team rangers went south to join Aragorn after Helm’s Deep. Saruman might sweet-talk these guys. “Left behind! How shameful! They didn’t think you could hold your own against the dangers in the south. They left you here to keep the hearths warm…like women!” That seems like a good bet. Make a little mischief for Aragorn. ---
**Author:** ![CorneaGenii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@CorneaGenii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CorneaGenii)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hishe-eagles-help-drop-one-ring-into-mount-doom-ramifications/729862/44 "2015-09-07T13:55:52Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > An evil pony WOULD be pretty interesting. When I read this, the chorus of “Bad Horse” from Dr. Horrible immediately started playing in my head. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hishe-eagles-help-drop-one-ring-into-mount-doom-ramifications/729862/45 "2015-09-07T15:15:17Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > An evil pony WOULD be pretty interesting. “I am BILL, Lord of the Horses. Give me sugar cubes or despair.” He’d make Shadowfax bow before him, and all of the Rohirrim riders have to eat oats. I laughed. By the by, where did they say the Eagles were Maiar? They were clearly not “normal” birds, but never thought they were anything other than a natural, if strange creature like the Ents. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hishe-eagles-help-drop-one-ring-into-mount-doom-ramifications/729862/46 "2015-09-07T20:59:51Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > . . . Where did he say that? . . . When Gandalf lectures Frodo on the origin of the One Ring, he uses the plural when he says it is extremely difficult for anyone to give up possession of “The Great Rings.” The Three, even if Elven-crafted, are, if Gandalf is to be trusted, also addictive in this way. We know that the nine and seven were: the three are of the same nature. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hishe-eagles-help-drop-one-ring-into-mount-doom-ramifications/729862/47 "2015-09-07T21:01:41Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > . . . By the by, where did they say the Eagles were Maiar? They were clearly not “normal” birds, but never thought they were anything other than a natural, if strange creature like the Ents. Can someone better informed than I am give the cite? I think it’s in one of the later works, or the Unfinished Tales, or Tolkien’s letters, or…somewhere? It is, apparently, Tolkien’s “official” word on the matter, but I don’t know where it is to be found. ETA: from the Middle Earth Wiki: “Morgoth’s Ring, “The Annals of Aman”, p. 138” ---
**Author:** ![Vahktang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f14d63/32.png) [@Vahktang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vahktang)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hishe-eagles-help-drop-one-ring-into-mount-doom-ramifications/729862/48 "2015-09-10T18:54:03Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I don’t feel like a mount counts as a ring bearer. The Fellowship would have spent more time close to him/the ring than the mount, and I feel like Frodo and crew used horses and ponies. You’re just as liable to have an evil pony as an evil bird. "You believe Friendship is Magic. “I shall show you True Magic.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hishe-eagles-help-drop-one-ring-into-mount-doom-ramifications/729862.md?page=2)