Who ruled over the Great Eagles in Middle-earth during the First Age?
Thorondor ruled over these great birds as Lord of the Eagles. He was said to be the mightiest of all birds that had ever existed.
Thorondor ruled over these great birds as Lord of the Eagles. He was said to be the mightiest of all birds that had ever existed.
Tolkien wrote the first tale about Middle-earth called The Fall of Gondolin in the late 1910s. In these early writings, the eagles were distinguished from common birds by their ability to fly beyond the lights of heaven.
In notes dated to the late 1950s, Tolkien decided that the Great Eagles were animals taught language by the Valar. They were raised to a higher level but still possessed no souls.
Marjorie Burns notes that Tolkien uses the Eagles three times to save his protagonists throughout the stories. They rescue Bilbo and company in The Hobbit, lift Gandalf from imprisonment by Saruman in the tower of Orthanc, and finally save Frodo and Sam from Mount Doom after the One Ring has been destroyed.
Two large sculptures of the eagles from the trilogy were installed at Wellington Airport in 2013. Each sculpture had a wingspan of several meters and weighed thousands of pounds before they were removed in 2025.