Eagle (Middle-earth)
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In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, the eagles are immense flying birds that are sentient, and can speak. These creatures have varied in size in films and visualisations. They are assumed to be similar to actual eagles (and so to be an independent sentient species of the eagle/buzzard subfamily Buteoninae in the same way humans are of the great ape subfamily Homininae), but much larger. In The Silmarillion the Lord of the Eagles, Thorondor, is said to have a wingspan of 30 fathoms (180 ft).
The eagles are said in The Silmarillion to have been "devised" by Manwë Súlimo, leader of the Valar, and were often called Eagles of Manwë. They were sent from Valinor to Middle-earth to keep an eye on the exiled Noldor, and on their foe the evil Vala Morgoth.
For a time the Lord of the Eagles, Thorondor, kept his eyries at the top of Thangorodrim, the three mighty peaks that Morgoth raised from the Iron Mountains above the gates of Angband. While they lived there, Thorondor helped Fingon rescue Maedhros. Thorondor's folk later removed their eyries to the Crissaegrim, part of the Echoriath or Encircling Mountains about Gondolin. There they were friends of Turgon, and kept spies off the mountains.
Thorondor slashed Morgoth in the face after Morgoth's battle with Fingolfin, and he carried Fingolfin's corpse to the Echoriath, where he was buried by Fingon.
The Eagles fought alongside the army of the Valar, Elves and Edain during the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age.
In the Second Age, a pair of Eagles had an eyrie in the King's House in Armenelos the capital of Númenor until the Kings became hostile to the Valar. The Eagles also watched the peak of Mount Meneltarma, and three Eagles would always appear when someone climbed to the summit.
In the Third Age, Thorondor's descendants Gwaihir and Landroval lived in an eyrie to the east of the Misty Mountains in Wilderland.
Before and during the War of the Ring, Gwaihir rescued Gandalf the Grey from the top of Isengard and again from Zirakzigil and, with others of his people, rescued Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee from Mount Doom in Mordor after the One Ring had been destroyed.
In The Hobbit, no eagles are identified by name. Only the title Lord of the Eagles distinguishes the eagle leader from other eagles in this story. (The text adds that he was given the title King of All Birds at a later date.) Many readers assume that it was Gwaihir and Landroval who rescued Thorin Oakenshield and company from a band of Wargs and Goblins, flying them to the river Anduin, and later assisted in the Battle of Five Armies fought near Erebor, the Lonely Mountain. However, in The Return of the King Gandalf says that Gwaihir has carried him twice before, while the proper count would be three times if Gwaihir and the Lord of the Eagles were the same individual.
Tolkien's painting of an eagle on a crag appears in some editions of The Hobbit. According to Christopher Tolkien, the author based this picture on a painting by Archibald Thorburn of an immature Golden Eagle, which Christopher found for him in The Birds of the British Isles by T. A. Coward. However, Tolkien's use of this model does not necessarily mean that his birds were ordinary Golden Eagles. In some of his texts Tolkien speculated that these great Eagles were actually Maiar in bird-shape, as he felt it unlikely Ilúvatar would grant fëa to animals. If this is true, then Roäc the Raven and the Thrush, who appear in The Hobbit, might also be Maiar or other spirits in animal form (and possibly even Beorn, who sometimes takes the form of a bear).
In The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, these creatures were 20 feet tall with a maximum wingspan of 75 feet.
