And Gandalf, of course, has his fireworks. Just like Saruman to think he’s the only incarnate maia to have discovered this little trick.
Thanks for this, Blake: “Not only pteranosaurs but turtles, platypuses…” If I picture hairless flying platypuses next time I read the book, it’s your fault.
Which I guess means a) the Fell Beasts are not dragons, b) they may or may not be birdlike (or platypus-like).
I think there had to have been at least 10 of the fell beasts. Legolas shot one, and the Witch King was riding one when Eowyn killed it (and him).
But in the confrontation at the Black Gate, aren’t the remainder of the Nazgul flying around on fell beasts?
Yeah, I know, I should remember. But I’ve been noncorporeal for so long …
At the black gate
And later (I’m sure you know when)
So he never says how many, but we (or at least I) certainly assume it’s all of them on “Fell Beasts.”
Something about that phrase…and the image of Sauron being nurturing…
“woood widdle beastie like another gobbet of orc flesh? yes? open wiiiide…goooood widdle beastie!”
It certainly sounds like there’s 8 Nazzy’s on Fell Beasts.
I’m sorry people, but that’s damn funny!! 
Mind, I don’t think that the Fell-Beasts are dragons (a dragon by itself is at least comparable in power to a Nazgul), only that they’re related to dragons. This does not seem inconsistent with Fell-Beasts having beaks while dragons have teeth. For that matter, depending on how one considers a “beak”, the same creature could even have both. And the way the wings are described, they sound rather batlike, rather than birdlike: A membrane stretched between fingers, rather than a single long “finger” at the front of the wing, like birds have. But I don’t think that bats are ever mentioned as being in Middle Earth, so Tolkien couldn’t say “They have bat wings”.
Which is why I voted for beaked Pterodons. Oh, nevermind. 
The Goblin Army at the end of The Hobbit is described as being accompanied by a swarm (flock?) of bats. In the Silmarillion there is also Thuringwethil, described as being in the form of a vampire bat.
My bad. The Goblin Army isn’t really at the end of The Hobbit, but at the battle of Five Armies.
Uhhh… That was the end of The Hobbit…
Well, if he had really wanted to be clear he could have said that the shadow about the fell beast reached out like two vast wings.
The Battle of Five Armies occurs two chapters from the end of The Hobbit. After the battle you have Thorin’s death scene, Bilbo saying farewell to the dwarves, the return journey with Gandalf and Beorn, another visit to Rivendell, the auction at Bag End when he returns home, and Gandalf and Balin visiting Bilbo years later.
I didn’t want some anal retentive type pointing out the obvious to me. Not that there are any people like that on these boards .
Wow. That was subtle. I applaud you, sir.
Am I the only one who wonders why Gandalf didn’t just set Frodo on a nonstop eagle from Rivendel to Mt. Doom? Apart from it would eliminate a lot of really good reading…
Fell Beasties in the movie look a lot like D&D wyverns. I had always imagined that was pretty much what they were.
There was a thread 'round here that talked about this. I’m not of a mind to wade through the LOTR threads to find it, but the general feeling was that the Eagles aren’t really a taxi service, and wouldn’t go for it. IIRC. The Eagles are a major deus ex machina in my opinion.
The Eagles have appeared suddenly in many threads, arriving unbidden and without warning. Perhaps they deserve their own, if we haven’t already exceeded the statutory limit on LOTR threads.
Litterally. They are the very litteral servants of Manwe, the king of earthly gods. And they are used many times in the history of Middle Earth in exactly this way: they save Maedros, they save Hurin, they arrive to defeat the dragons in the war of wrath, etc.