Eagle (Middle-earth)
| Founded | First Age |
|---|---|
| Founder | Manwë |
| Leader(s) | Thorondor, Gwaihir |
| Home world | Middle-earth |
| Base of operations | Encircling Mountains, Misty Mountains |
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, the eagles were immense flying birds that were sapient and could speak. Often emphatically referred to as the Great Eagles, they appear, usually and intentionally serving as agents of eucatastrophe or deus ex machina, in various parts of his legendarium, from The Silmarillion and the accounts of Númenor to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Just as the Ents are guardians of plant life, the giant eagles are the guardians of animal life.
These creatures are usually thought to have been similar to actual eagles (for example, as an independent species of the subfamily Buteoninae), but much larger. In The Silmarillion, Thorondor is said to have been the greatest of them and of all birds, with a wingspan of 30 fathoms (180 ft; 55 m). Elsewhere, the eagles have varied in nature and size both within Tolkien's writings and in later visualisations and films.
The difference between "common" eagles and Great Eagles is prominently described in The Hobbit:
Eagles are not kindly birds. Some are cowardly and cruel. But the ancient race of the northern mountains were the greatest of all birds; they were proud and strong and noble-hearted.
Throughout The Silmarillion, the Eagles are particularly associated with Manwë, the ruler of the sky and Lord of the Valar. It is stated that "spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles" brought news from Middle-earth to his halls upon Taniquetil, the highest mountain in Valinor, although later in the book the same is said of birds in general, and in the Valaquenta of "all swift birds, strong of wing". (On the different conceptions implied by these and similar passages, see Nature below.)
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