Well, they did fight and help defeat Ancalagon the Black, who probably could have eaten nazguls for breakfast if there had been any around in the First Age.
So what? The last time Sauron went into a fight with his ring on, he got beaten by force; we then spent the bulk of LOTR waiting to see if he’ll put the ring back on and get beaten by force again – except someone else with the ring of course gets beaten by force first, at which point someone else gets the ring and falls down and dies.
Ok, remember how the Ents didn’t want to get involved until Saruman started killing their trees? The Eagles were like that, but more determined. There weren’t that many of them, and they lived in remote, inhospitable places because they didn’t really give that much of a shit about the affairs of men, elves, and orcs. They fought and killed orcs that came into their territory but that’s as involved as they wanted to be.
The idea that Gandalf could summon and direct the the Eagles on command is false. The Eagles were clearly more than just birds, they could talk, had names and a society, and were intelligent, powerful, and ancient. Gandalf asked them for help to escape from Orthanc because he was an old friend of the Eagles and Manwe, plus he was a Maia, so they did him a solid. He later persuaded them to rescue Frodo and Sam after Sauron was defeated, but could never have gotten them to fly into, or anywhere near, Mordor while Sauron was alive. There were other flying beasts under Sauron’s command than the wyrms of the Nazgûl, and an army more than 5 times the size of the one that attacked Gondor. You’re sure as hell not going to get within shouting distance of Mordor without being spotted and swarmed.
Make it through that alive, and actually make it to the volcano using Pratchett’s Million to One Chance <tm>, and then what? You can’t land anywhere or you’ll be instantly torn to shreds, and you can’t “fly over it and drop the ring in”. Do you know anything about volcanoes? Do you realize how high over it you would have to fly to not die instantly from the heat and the toxic fumes? It would be like dropping a quarter off the top of the Empire State Building and trying to hit a bucket on the ground. What if it gets caught in the wind and blows right into one of Sauron’s Orcs? The End of the World, thats what. “Welcome to the Apocalypse, we’re going to have a thousand thousand years of suffering and torture, then we’ll Ragnarok, and then possibly start it all over again. Dress apropriately, and don’t forget your magical accessories.”
They seemed to give enough of a shit to be one of the Five Armies in the eponymous Battle (and what Telperion said about the First Age)
Why does not Pippin, the largest hobbit, simply not eat the other three?
There’s a bit of a big difference between joining in a low-risk (for an eagle) fight against a bunch of goblins that have been a pain in the arse for ages, and going with no back up into the stronghold of the most dangerous being currently in the world.
He’s not even all that keen about carrying Gandalf far
[Quote=Gwaihir]
I was sent to bear tidings, not burdens!
[/Quote]
and they outright refuse to carry him and the dwarves further than a short hop in the Hobbit, because they don’t want the risk of being shot at by men.
They don’t even like men very much, and will cheerfully nick a sheep if they get a chance; they just like orcs less.
By LoTR, they’re willing to go as far as scouting round when asked to by Radagast and Galadriel (book Gandalf doesn’t summon any eagles- Radagast, ‘friend of birds and beasts’ gets one to go send him a message, and he cadges a lift), presumably because of the risk of Sauron winning and threatening their eyrie, but they’re not jumping up and down going “Ooh, ooh, I can help! Pick me! Pick me!” like the hobbits. They keep themselves to themselves.
If there was no other option, maybe an especially daring or generous eagle might be persuaded to carry someone to the edge of Mordor, before scarpering, but the idea of summoning an eagle army to invade the place while Sauron’s still in charge, with the expectation that ‘maybe one would survive long enough’? No chance.
They may decide to join fights, when it looks like they’re out of options, or when they it’s worth it, but they don’t risk themselves because someone else tells them to.
To be fair, that might also be because his name is Gwaihir the Windlord, not Gwaihir Airlines.
Frodo: Actually, yeah, you do.
Sam: Totally.
Gollum: Yep.
Maybe it’s a height thing? “You must be shorter than this to walk into Mordor.”
HOBBITS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY! Good night!
One does not simply walk into Cafe Society and squash memes.
No, it’s exactly the opposite. The Nazgul/Eye/Menagerie of Sauron’s other winged beasts (for instance, a Balrog ;)) only need to stop one Eagle – the one carrying the ring. And since the ring calls to Sauron, there’s no problem figuring out which Eagle that is.
If that were true than Sauron would have known the ring was about to get flash-fried by Frodo.
But of course this is precisely what the Men/Elves/Dwarves/Hobbits are doing with their army in ROTK. Do the Eagles not understand the consequences of Sauron regaining the Ring, or do they really not care? Do they think they will escape the effects of Sauron’s rule?
They don’t care that much. They’ll just go back to Valinor and build their aeries on Taniquetil. Or find some other peaks in Middle Earth where they won’t be bothered. Eagles are pretty detached, unless Manwë gives them some direct orders.
And you didn’t see Manwë, or Tulkas or Eonwë, or any of the Vanyar signing on to fight Sauron, did you? For better or for worse, Sauron is a problem for mortal men and the elves of the west. Everybody else is saving their stuff for Dagor Dagorath, when Melkor returns from beyond the Wall of Night.
The moral position of the Valar as to the stewardship of Arda is deeply disturbing to me, but I think that’s the subject of a whole different thread. I did not realize that the Eagles could simply absent themselves from the problem all the way back to Valinor, though; that makes sense.
That’s why it was so important to keep Sauron’s attention elsewhere by marching the good guys army to the black gates and challenging his army directly.
Question: in the movie, we did not see the mountain as a volcano, we see it as a mountain with a cave in which there was a pit of boiling lava. Was that not accurate? I always thought that was why the ring could not just be dropped into the fire from on high, because it was inside the mountain. Or was the cave just a side door, and there was also an opening to the sky, but we just didn’t see it because none of the characters was at that angle to it?
The Balrog? The one that got beat by an old man with a stick?
Um, yeah, they could have done that with the eagles as well.
The simple answer is:
“No, the Eagles won’t do it.” - you can argue motivations as long as you want, but yeah, they’re not beholden to anyone here.
The slightly longer answer is “Are you people SERIOUSLY suggesting that someone try to drop a ring into a volcano from the back of an airborne eagle?”
I will not dignify any “they could just drop the ring bearer” suggestions with an answer.
AND a sword…