The Eagles of Manwë
The Great Eagles; the winged messengers of the Elder King
Nature and Office
The Eagles — the Great Eagles of the mountains — are the creatures of Manwë, Lord of Air: “the eagles of the sky, the oldest of the birds” — in the mythology they are not beasts but spirits in bird-shape, servants of the Valar: “the Eagles were created by Manwë… for they were the messengers of the Lord of the West”. Their lord is Thorondor, “the King of Eagles, the mightiest of the eagles in the Elder Days”. They are the eyes of Manwë over the world: far-sighted beyond all creatures, they dwell on the inaccessible peaks (Thangorodrim above Angband lay in Thorondor’s survey; the high crags of the mountains were their eyries), and they bear both tidings and the friends of the Valar through the air.
Deeds in the First Age
- The rescue of Maedhros: When Maedhros was hung in torment upon Thangorodrim, Fingon sang to the Eagles — and Thorondor bore him up to cut away the hand and save his friend; their greatest single service to the Noldor.
- The bearing of kings: At the death of Fingolfin before the gates of Angband, Thorondor came down and bore the king’s body away, laying it in a tomb among the mountains, safe from the Enemy.
- The guard of Gondolin: Thorondor and his eagles kept the airs above the hidden vale of Tumladen; at the Fall of Gondolin they aided the remnant’s escape through the Pass of the Eagles (Cirith Thoronath) — the eagles bearing Tuor and Idril from the burning city in the early tales, and Glorfindel falling in the rearguard combat upon the crag.
- The tale of Beren and Lúthien: In the quest of the Silmaril the Eagles bore the lovers from danger; the exact rescue-scene varies between the Lay of Leithian and the Quenta, but the aid of Thorondor’s birds is constant in both.
- The War of Wrath: in the last war of the age, Thorondor and the Great Eagles fought in the van against the winged dragons at the fall of Morgoth.
The Eagle-kin
The Eagles of Manwë have their place among the “free” creatures; they are not Eagles of the plain but of the air and the high peaks; in later Ages their kin dwelt in the Misty Mountains etc… Their greatest, Thorondor, spans the whole First Age.
In the Texts
The Eagles figure in the Quenta (rescue of Maedhros, War of Wrath, the Fall of Gondolin) and in the Unfinished Tales (the Fall of Gondolin fragment). Christopher Tolkien notes the persistence of the “deus ex machina” of the eagles — Tolkien’s own folk-motif of beneficent gods in bird-form.