Are you sick of hearing people ask the same, tired old question about The Lord of the Rings? “Why didn’t the eagles just fly Frodo or the One Ring to Mordor?”
People treat it like some huge, glaring plot hole. The big, sentient birds could surely just fly all that way there and drop it into the big volcano themselves, and then Frodo and Sam wouldn’t have had to trek all the way up there in the first place… right?
Well, the next time someone asks you this inane, ridiculous question, try asking them if they ever actually read the books that the LOTR books are based on in the first place.
Over in a thread on the r/tolkeinfans subreddit, one user thought they had the perfect answer for this question, from the lips of J. R. R. Tolkien himself.
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Unfortunately, it turns out the interview they quoted is actually fake. Luckily, however, someone else in the comments had the real answer.
As user uxixu notes, Gwaihir, Lord of the Great Eagles, outright states why he wouldn’t take on the task in The Hobbit.
"The Lord of the Eagles would not take them anywhere near where men lived. 'They would shoot at us with their great bows of yew,' he said, 'for they would think we were after their sheep. And at other times they would be right. No! We are glad to cheat the goblins of their sport, and glad to repay our thanks to you, but we will not risk ourselves for dwarves in the southward plains.'"
There you have it. Dude straight up says “nah bro, I don’t wanna, there’s too much heat.”
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Now, obviously, this quote takes place in a story prior to the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but Gwaihir is still the leader of the Great Eagles at this point in time.
So, next time someone asks you this dumb question, tell them that the giant, sentient birds were well aware of the fact that there was a good chance they’d get shot down by giant arrows.
Topics: The Lord Of The Rings, TV And Film