The All Seeing Eye of Sauron was rather busy occupying itself with the army staked-out on his front doorstep at the time (y’know the diversion, to allow the Ringbearer access to Mt. Doom.) Had Gwaihir been given the Ring and sent towards Orodruin, he would certainly have had to face the flying Nazgul, and who knows what else, as huge Eagles flying into Mordor is certainly a bit more obvious than two small hobbits sneaking in the back way while a major war rages elsewhere. Notice the Eagles never actually confront the Nazgul, the Ringwraiths are instantly recalled the second Frodo claims the Ring, and are completely annihilated once the Ring is destroyed.
Hmph. Well on the one hand if the Great Eagles didn’t like to meddle in human affairs then I doubt the Ring would have been much of a temptation since it’s power seemed to be over men (and elves and dwarves and hobbitses). On the other hand I’d argue that the eagles didn’t mind meddling in human affairs. They rescued the dwarf party from a goblin roast in The Hobbit, Gandalf from Saruman’s tower and Frodo and Sam from Mt. Doom, to name a few times. If Sauron and Saruman were keeping tabs on the Lord of the Eagles they did a pretty sorry job as he flew right into both of their domains unhindered. Sauron was pretty obsessed with hobbitses during the War of the Ring.
The database you refer to is the SDMB? I hadn’t thought about that. I’ll do a search or if you could post a link please.
Don’t mind me, I just like coming up with goofy scenarios for LoTR fans to squabble over. 
I should also mention that the “All Seeing Eye of Sauron” isn’t. Sauron could only focus his attention on one thing at a time. His presumable clairvoyance, could either be an innate ability, or could be derived from his use of the palantir in Barad-dur. The text describes his gaze like a beam, powerful and long-ranged, but tightly focused.
Hmmm… I’m not fluent at all outside of LOTR and The Hobbit, so I can’t say I can agree or disagree on that one. I’ll take your word on it.
However, someone mentioned that while Gwaihir & Co. did do a few surgical strikes in the books, they were all at the request of Gandalf, and were most likely huge favors, for which Gandalf will be required to throw an enormous stag party for G-Dub and all his buddies.
Sauron and Saruman weren’t exactly keeping tabs on the Lord of the Eagles, as you say, but were certainly keeping an eye out for any powerful being in possession of the ring, or that had the possibility of having the ring.
Yeah, the SDMB has a whole buncha threads on LOTR, most of which were created last November that coincided with the release of some related movie or whatnot. And you’re right - there is nothing more entertaining than concocting a completely ridiculous scenario, and have Quadgop come by and tell you exactly why it’s infeasible. I learn so much stuff here that’ll never earn me a penny, it’s ridiculous.
If that’s the case, you should have started with “Do Balrogs have wings?”
Gandalf did not have the power to send the Ring off into “space”, nor did anyone else present at the end of the Third Age. Only Manwe, Varda, and their people had access to the Upper Airs, and Gandalf was of (iirc) Lorien. Sending it to the folks who did have such power, by the way, was stated in the book to not be an option: The consensus of the Wise in Middle-Earth was that the West would not want to be bothered by such problems.
It wasn’t just any volcano which could destroy the Ring, it was that particular volcano. I imagine that if they had thrown the Ring into, say, Mauna Kea, that it would just stay in the lava until it solidified, and eventually get chisled out of the rock. It isn’t a matter of temperature: Without a cite, I can say that I suspect Gandalf could produce temperatures higher than those in Mt. Doom. It wouldn’t have mattered.
Destroying the Mountain, or at least easy access to it, may have been within Sauron’s powers, and he probably would have been wise to do so, but he wasn’t wise. The thought never even occured to him that anyone would try to destroy it, so why would he?
Weren’t all the LOTR movie threads lost in the board outage? The movie premiered Dec 19, and all the threads from Dec 7 - Mar 11 are gone. Not to say there aren’t a lot of other threads around, though.
Munch, I think you’re right about Gandalf making the requests for escape to the Great Eagles. Makes no difference tho, they still didn’t mind complying. But now that I think about it, if the Head Eagle just happened to drop that ring while carrying it, ooooohhh…
I think Chronos is right on about Gandalf not being able to send the Ring into the heavens. If he had some mastery over the air he would have simply levitated down from atop Orthanc. Pyrotechnic master that he may have been, he might have had the ability to create temperatures as hot as magma from Mt. Doom but the whole point of the destruction of the Ring was that it had to be (un)done where it was forged. Presumably it’s inherent magic would also be undone there as well (along with Sauron’s only remaining link to Middle-Earth). It wasn’t necessarily the physical destruction that Gandalf was worried about, it was the Power of the Ring. I always assumed that Sauron kept Mt. Doom open for business so if he ever regained the Ring and became corporate again he could forge other nastiness for the denizen’s of M-E to deal with.
Wasn’t one of the primary attractions of the One Ring the ability to control those who wore the other Rings of Power? Why then would the Elves have kept theirs on? Shouldn’t they have given them to Frodo to destroy as well? Heck, throw the Palantirs in as well, everything that Sauron touched was tainted.
Oh, and Balrogs have shadows of wings. I do remember that thread recently but I won’t go any further than that.
Cecil Adams, of course:cool:
Customer in shop: “Is this a cheeseshop?”
Shopkeeper: “No.”
Customer: “Well, this joke’s pretty much f*cked then, isn’t it?”
[sub]OK, I’m being a bit obscure but my point is, you’ve pretty much got to assume that there are limits to what the magical figures in LotR can do, otherwise there’s no story.[/sub]
This is a frequently discussed question. The obvious answer, that it wouldn’t be much of a story then, doesn’t serve here. Otherwise, there are several possible responses.
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The eagles were not under Gandalf’s control. In the Hobbit, they were attracted to the fir wood by the fire and commotion, and the Battle of Five Armies by the din and hue of war. Gandalf is rescued from Orthanc by an eagle who journeyed there at Radagast’s request and later from the top of Zirak-zigil perhaps at Manwe’s request.
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Assuming that Gandalf did not know of the airborne Nazgul, Sauron did nonetheless have spies in the air in the form of crows, etc. The Ringwraiths were abroad and were capable of sensing the Ring. A flight of eagles bearing Frodo and the Ring would eventually be detected before reaching Mordor. The eagles could not fly the whole way at once so there was danger of assault during a rest stop and again when the eagles reached Mordor.
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Gandalf knew of the Nazgul, or suspected that Mordor was otherwise protected from intrusion via the air. A flight of eagles would have been very open and obvious as it approached Mordor.
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The eagles could not carry such a burden over such a distance or they would not do so. Also, the eagles were only nominal allies; the Hobbit notes that some are not trustworthy.
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Finally, even if an eagle had succeeded in carrying Frodo and the Ring all the way to Mount Doom, Frodo would not have been able to throw it into the Fire, and the whole quest would be vain. Frodo would quickly have been spotted by Sauron, and the ring would have been taken from him and returned to Sauron.
So now you know. 
Short answer? Because Gwaihir (IIRC the Lord of the Eagles) didn’t feel like it.
Slightly longer answer? Because he’s a Maia (sp?) and the equal in rank to Gandalf, who couldn’t tell him to do anything. He could ask, but not compel.
Question:
What woulda happened if Shelob had gotten ahold of the ring?