Quote:
Originally Posted by Trexller
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
Why wouldn't frodo just ride the giant eagles to mordor
Pick up in the shire, drop the ring into mt doom from the air
Home in time for dinner
|
From my understanding, the Eagles are basically equivalent to angels, and in the LOTR lore the angels are not really supposed to interfere with Middle Earth. It's similar to if you believe in God and angels. Angels could have killed Hitler in WW2, which would have ended a major conflict. But there is no evidence of this occuring, as God probably wouldn't allow them to do this. You can think of the Eagles not destroying the One Ring in the same context.
Gandalf is also an angel, and has one of the three elven rings of power, the ring of fire. He cannot unleash his full wizard powers because he is an angel, and has the same restriction as the eagles.
Instead, he uses the ring of fire to "fire up" the courage of others, which is one reason why he is able to persuade people to go on these perilous quests. He is guiding the people of middle earth to fix the problems since he cannot directly do it himself.
The Balrogs are basically corrupted angels and aren't supposed to exist. That is why Gandalf decided to use his full wizard powers against the Balrog specifically. There was no way to stop it from killing the Fellowship otherwise. He does warn the Balrog first that he is an angel, which is his famous "you shall not pass" speech. Perhaps he was hoping to avoid conflict if the Balrog knew he was a serious threat.