So, just how powerful are the eagles supposed to be in the LotR universe...

So, just how powerful are the eagles supposed to be in the LotR universe? We seem them rescue the heroes a number of times throughout both The Hobbit and the LotR trilogy but I believe we only see them fighting once or twice, against the fel beasts the Nazgul ride.

They're more or less Eagle Gods, right? Where do they fit in on a power ranking scale? How long have they been around?

Mind you, I've never read the books, so maybe those go into more depth about the Eagles.

Also, general LotR/Hobbit thread.

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like most dnd dragons I supose

The Eagles are Maiar, and with that on a level with Sauron.

They just can't be bothered to help Gandalf a lot.

What is it that they have to do that's more important than preventing Middle Earth from being enslaved by a dark lord?

why do they choose to be stupid fuckin eagles?

If you could fly you wouldn't give a fuck either.

Which book is this mentioned ?

They don't have any love for the dunedain of Anor and Gondor. The Elves still in Middle Earth are free to leave for Aman at any point, so they don't really see the point of saving them from a Corrupted Maiar. Don't forget that the vast majority of Humans is loyal to Sauron, and even other Maiar like Saruman got corrupted.

Manwe told them not to get involved if possible. They lost a lot of their own when fighting Morgoths Dragons in the First Age,

Does the plight of mortals not have any effect on the quality of life for Maiar? They're more or less angels, right? The "hands" of the virtuous in a Good vs. Evil setup?

Silmarillion.

Maiar took many forms, Dogs, Eagles, Horses, also Balrogs and Ents.

Man, the lore in LotR gets complicated as fuck. I've only ever watched the movies (not even the extended version) and just thinking about a lot of the events that happened in them just leave me with more questions than answers.

Sauron is not really a threat to anyone beyond Middle Earth. The Humans had a chance to destroy him and failed, then they eventually killed him and the Maiar couldn't care less.

Except when you get personal beef like Treebeard vs Saruman and Gandalf vs Balrog.

remember that Tolkien was a true christian, and it may have something to do with that terrible "god works in mysterious ways"-bullshit

thats not true

Had Gandalf gotten into it with the Balrog before their encounter in Moria? I figured he knew of the Balrog but didn't know if he'd ever seen one before.

no, but Gandalf was trespassing on the Balrogs turf.

Are Dragons Maiar?

This is wrong.

no, they are Morgoths creation to imitate the Eagles like Trolls are meant to imitate the Ents.

He eventually lost the power to create living beings.

Thanks user!

the eagles were mostly passive observers, helped out gandalf a few times because maiar bros, but they weren't that fond of men generally.

at this point in middle earth the 'gods' had pretty much washed their hands of middle earth, sending gandalf and the other wizards was the most they were willing to do to help, even then they were sent with their powers nerfed and were only to aid and help the men and elves of middle earth prepare to fight. not oppose sauron directly with their powers.

An average Great Eagles of the Third Age (LOTR) are 3-4 times larger than our biggest eagles and obviously more intelligent. Older age eagles, like Thorondor, were big guys. Almost dragon big.

This is wrong, why are you retarded. Manwe created the eagles to inhabit the mountains, they weren't Maiar.

What happened to the top and bottom portions of earth? Why is it just "middle" earth?

He's lying to you.

nice interesting lore indeed, too bad it wasn't in the fucking movies, so they're just really convenient deus ex machina there

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Memes aside, I really don't understand why this wouldn't work.

sundered

if anything Eru created them and Manwe employed them.

They're just a terrible deus ex machina because Tolkien is a hack

It's not top and bottom but east and west. The eastern portion is still there, it's the blank area beyond Mordor. It's all under Sauron's control already and is liberated by Aragorn after RotK. The Western portion was called Belleriand and into the ocean at some point, can't remember why.

south still exists and most of the north was destroyed by Melkor fighting the Valar at various points of time.

Eagles aren't Maiar.

Ents aren't Maiar either.

get back on your meds, Christopher.

Go back to your GoT general, mouthbreather

Eagles are powerful as fuck, some are as strong as dragons and balrogs

I'm pretty sure they just have kingdoms in the mountains. In The Hobbit don't they start investigating why the goblins are all pissy and only notice Gandalf and Co because of the fires. They hate goblins so they kill a few and save the day. Then after a bro fist/wing they help Gandalf later in the battle of the five armies because they followed the misty mountain goblins.

They help Gandalf later in LotR as he's in trouble and sends a weepy message to them. Then later they get involved cos it's a battle for all middle earth including their nest sites.

What we are really seeing are special forces squadrons doing missions that no other race can handle. If the whole eagle race got involved the stories would be three chapters long.

Why do they eagles have so much hatred for goblins?

Also, there are more eagles than what they show in the movies? I thought there was anywhere from 6-10 of them.

Read the fucking books.

flying into Mordor while Saurons Spirit was in Barad Dur would be mental suicide for an eagle.

i hate the fuckin eagles man

I think the Eagles are just speculated to be Maiar, but are just immortal beings that are Manwe's higher ups. They have an affinity for the Maiar though since they helped the eagles out when orc's wouldn't stop shooting them with arrows in the mountains.

They only help the fellowship because Gandalf is there and he is charged with trying to steer men in the right direction to defeat Sauron. That's why the eagles only come at pivitol moments, because they don't actually give a shit what happens but they give a shit about Gandalf. If men lost they could have just flown out of middle earth. Also they can talk in the books.