#manwë's eagles

[beatles4ever65]

There's vague precedent for this, considering Elrond's mother is part bird courtesy of Ulmo and his father sails the heavens using Manwë's winds!

Just pop them into Elrond's arms and he'll yeet them onto Vingilótë discus-style!

“There are many magic rings in this world, Bilbo Baggins, and none of them should be used lightly.”

-Gandalf the Grey, wielder of Narya the Ring of Fire and also coincidentally maker of the best magic fireworks in the world

[vizual-demon]

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

(2012) dir. Peter Jackson

[silmarillion-ways-to-die]

[eri-pl]

Checking something.

[the-spirit-of-yore]

Gondolin par Atriedes

[aniseandspearmint]

Eagles of Manwë, doing that stacking thing Harris Hawks do, like this;

(photo by: Richard Simonson)

(painting by: Andrew Denman)

[edennill-archived]

The Nolofinweans tend to protest when anyone suggests they have divine favour, with Fingon especially avowing that "it was one time!"

This is not considered convincing coming from people who get to use the Eagles of Manwë as a postal service.

[princessfantaghiro]

I wonder if the "Bird" that disrupted Tar-Miriel's Coronation and "chose/anointed as leader" Ar-Pharazôn is the authentic Great Eagle of Manwë? 🤔 Or is it a false image, "painted/pressed" onto the canvas/fabric of reality by Sauron. An incredibly authentic illusion that he created en masse in the minds of the Numenoreans? Because we've already seen an incredibly realistic and powerful illusion of Sauron at the beginning of LOTR. There are thousands of Sauron's Orcs. They kill and wreak havoc just like the real ones. They are indistinguishable from the originals. And yet they disappear as if by magic as soon as Isilur cuts off the Dark-Lord's finger with the One Ring. Destroying Sauron, i.e. his illusion of himself; called "Morgoth the Ressurected".

[cilil]

"For Manwë to whom all birds are dear, and to whom they bring news upon Taniquetil from Middle-earth [...]"

Damn, sounds like the "birds aren't real, they're actually government drones" conspiracy theory is actually true -

[balrogballs]

I'm still sad about this heartwarming and mildly amusing little section where feral adolescent Aragorn brings some joy to Maedhros in his unhinged little way, which I had to cut out of Cast in Stone for structural reasons, especially as I had gone to the trouble of illustrating it!

But I realised it reads perfectly fine standalone, so you guys can have my crumb of Maedhros-joy instead. No context required: Maedhros and Maglor are temporarily staying in the Shire during the late Third Age, Maedhros had a horrible night of traumatic dreams and was being maudlin — until young Aragorn, aka Elros II and the bane of his life, turns up like a bad penny, as he often does. Enjoy!

---

"You look unhappy," said Estel, sitting down before Maedhros, legs crossed. "Does your hand hurt? Surely it can't be as bad as when it got chopped off, can it?"

"No, but leave me be, Estel, I have —"

"All right, but let me ask just one question. I promise, then I'll go away. I just remembered something from my lessons, and every time I ask Ada he looks up at the sky and asks the Valar where he went wrong in raising me," Estel moved closer, looking around for eavesdroppers. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. But I would like to know."

Maedhros frowned, swallowed the lump in his throat and dragged in a breath. "What?"

"Fingon rescued you on one of those enormous eagles, didn't he? On that mountain with Morgoth and all of that. It was one of those, right? Manwë's Eagles."

"Yes. He did. I do not wish to answer any further questions on the matter, clear off."

"And it was quite a long journey, wasn't it?"

Maedhros grunted.

"I've always had a question about it… and again, you don't have to tell me if it's too traumatising," Estel's eyes shone, as though he were about to hear a state secret. "And I promise I won't tell anyone."

"Spit it out, boy, or leave me now. I am in the mood for neither company nor memory."

"Did it… you know…?"

"If you're trying to ask me if losing the hand hurt, yes it did," Maedhros snapped. "Now leave me alone, I've had enough reminiscing for a damned century. Get off home, now!"

"Oh, shut up, I wasn't asking about your stupid hand, I don't understand why you think everyone sits around thinking about your hand," Estel scowled, pursuing his lips, before deciding his quest for scientific knowledge was more important than whatever had crawled up Maedhros' arsehole and died. He widened his eyes conspiratorily, looked around again. "My question has nothing to do with that! I just wanted to know, did the eagle… you know?"

"Estel, I am not going to repeat this, get out of my sight right this —"

"Did it take a shit?"

"Did… what?"

"Did it take a shit?" Estel flushed as he said the word, Elrond's parental touch finally taking hold, though in a predictably useless manner. "And if it did, how big was it? As in, was it normal bird crap, or was it, you know — like a bucketload of it?"

Maedhros blinked. Estel held his hands out to demonstrate.

"I've always wanted to know that about them, you know," the boy continued, stroking his chin like a philosopher. "Manwe's eagles, that is. Surely if they're big enough to carry two people, one being a towering beast like you, their droppings must be massive."

"What…?" Maedhros couldn't formulate words, a state of being Estel clearly had no familiarity with. "Their… what?"

"And yes, I know they're divine, all of that, but surely they can't be toilet trained, can they? I just don't see Manwë having enough time to toilet train an eagle, you know. Could you imagine just… going about your day, and having this massive tub of birdshite fall on your head? Oh, it could drown a person, I'm sure of it!" Estel grinned, as if said occurrence would be the best day of his life, had it happened to him. "So, did it? And if it did, did you see if it went on someone?"

Maedhros sat there blinking at the boy in complete silence before rising quietly, taking the now-extremely-familiar ear, and slowly — like he were a corpse — leading Estel to the village gate. He didn't say a word, only gestured weakly and put up three fingers, a signal the now sulky boy was very used to.

And as Estel, muttering darkly all the while, neared the completion of his first punishment-lap of three around the village green, he heard something that sounded like a donkey in immense pain. It was a sound so tremendous and unexpected that it brought Maglor running from the house, gaping at the source, having not heard such a thing in centuries. It was no donkey, but Maedhros in complete hysterics, sitting on the ground exactly where he was when he beckoned Estel to run, sobbing with laughter, actual tears pouring down his face, which itself was screwed up and flushed so pink he looked like he'd been badly sunburned. He was trying to explain the situation to Maglor (who had been glaring at Estel as if he had personally killed his brother, and now looked upon him like he was Iluvatar himself) but Maedhros was howling too hard to even stand, let alone form coherent words.

Estel pretended not to notice, and started on his second lap. Though objectively speaking, the laugh itself sounded like something between a foghorn, a pig and whatever noise he imagined Ungoliant would make — there was something rather lovely about it that brought an inexplicable little smile to his face.

[magkinetix]

Eönwë the herald of Manwë 🦅🦅🦅

I was a bit inspired by depictions of Egyptian gods with animal heads (in particular Horus) for this design, as I wanted him to have birdlike features due to his association with the Eagles of Manwë.

I’m pretty pleased with this design, but it might be changed in the future. Since the Valar are the pantheon for all of Arda, not just western-inspired Middle Earth, I want to take inspiration in my designs of them from many different pantheons and cultures from around our world. In this case, I’ve decided to take ancient Egyptian inspiration for Manwë, and by extension the Maiar associated with him!

Of course I haven’t fully ironed out my image of the Valar pantheon, so this may change I’m the future if I decide to take a different route.

[eri-pl]

I can’t remember if I’ve asked before, but do you have thoughts on the Eagles of Manwe? You have Manwe thoughts so I saw no harm in enquiring!

Thank you for the ask! I love getting asks (about Silm and related, I have mixed feelings about chain asks and things like that tbh)

I have no idea. Just like Tolkien, I don't feel satisfied with any of the options. Probably the most natural for me would be to add a whole category of, like, lesser Maiar, and put the Eagles, Huan and maybe even the Ents there. But it still doesn't feel quite right.

Hm. OK. I do have a sketch of idea.

When Aulë made the Dwarves, it made a precedent by resulting (he didn't achieve it by himself, I know) with something that has souls, but is neither Men nor Elves. And we all know how precedents tend to work (let one half-mortal to Valinot in FA and in TA you have a whole bunch of Hobbits there + an illegal Dwarf). So maybe some of the other Valar got their dedicated sentient races too, as a treat. We know it was canonically sort-of the case with Yavanna and the Ents.

I mean, seriously, Aulë gets the Dwarves because he messed up, Yavanna gets the Ents because she complained on Aulë getting the Dwarves, and Manwë just patiently deals with it all and doesn't even ask for anything… I think he got the Eagles as a treat, for not throwing tantrums about the disaster couple (yes, I think in early days those two weren't great as a couple. They did get better though). (He would be surprised about getting them… even though two of the Valar just got such stuff… Of course he would be surprised. I love him, he's so innocent. <3 )

Also, Manwë is a cinamon roll. I want him to have a treat.

And if there are mermaids, it means that Ulmo got a treat too.

[crownedwithstars]

The idea that only Ulmo or Nienna care about Middle-earth and do anything to help Eruhini is a strange misconception because Tolkien pretty clearly shows that at least Manwë is watching very closely what's going on and sometimes even interferes? It's just that the Valar mostly seem to work through the elements they represent, which if you think about it is pretty neat.

Like there are various instances where the wind acts up suddenly, causing storms or rising in just the right moment (as in ROTK, clearing the air for the Rohirrim and speeding Aragorn's journey as he sails for Minas Tirith)

And even more obviously, the Eagles. Tolkien specifically says that the Eagles are Manwë's advocates in Middle-earth, providing miraculous aid when all else fails. Without the Eagles, Beren and Lúthien's quest would have failed and Huor would not have got to Gondolin (which then would have prevented Eärendil's success or even meant he was never born). They give crucial aid to Gandalf more than once. The Eagles also help Fingon to save Maedhros, because Manwë "would not wholly abandon the Noldor". Tolkien recognises that the Eagles are "deus ex machina", and in this case, the meaning is quite literal.

Then there are the Istari, envoys of the Valar: while there is proof of only Gandalf's success, even just the efforts of one of the Wizards was enough to bring down Sauron.

As for Ulmo, you could argue that he is responsible for the whole Eärendil and Elwing arc - and that it was a job between him and Manwë. It's Manwë's Eagles that bring Huor to Gondolin, and Ulmo later sends Huor's son Tuor into the hidden city. Tuor and Eärendil both get sea-longing in their hearts. During the flight of the survivors of Gondolin, Eagles are again present and bring up the body of Glorfindel, making you wonder whether they would have interfered more in the Balrog fight if Glorfindel had not stepped up to protect the refugees - and Eärendil, the fated saviour of Middle-earth. Also, Ulmo rescues Elwing when she casts herself into the sea, turning her into a bird so that she can fly to find Eärendil. Water and air and birds keep showing up in the stories of Eärendil and Elwing and if that's not proof of Manwë and Ulmo's plotting, I don't know what is. I mean, it's even said in the first pages of the Silmarillion that they are fast friends and closely allied from the beginning! Eärendil becoming a star also in a weird way even combines the elements of Ulmo, Manwë, and Varda: bearing the Silmaril, Eärendil sails an immortal ship in the sea of heaven and stars, forever as a sign of hope to the Children of Ilúvatar.

What about the other Valar? If we keep in mind that they chiefly work through the elements they represent, their abilities to interfere are limited (and this is a self-imposed limitation clearly). Yavanna's creation of the Ents proves to be a pretty great one in The Two Towers, although you can argue to what degree she is influencing the events. More obviously In Shelob's lair, Sam calls for Varda, and the light of the phial of Galadriel comes alive in his hand and smites the great spider, helping Sam to defeat the monster. Also, during Sam and Frodo's desperate march through the hellscape that is Mordor, Sam yearns for a little bit of light and water to hearten him - and lo and behold, he gets these exact things as if Varda and Ulmo personally delivered.

In other words, the Valar are a lot more active in Middle-earth than they get credit for, and they work in subtle and indirect ways because only then can they make sure they don't accidentally kill a lot of the Children.

[lime-bucket]

Hey divas can we give the manwë is a doormat for melkor fanon a rest?

Like yeah maybe it wasnt a brain move to free the powerful & probably unstable valar without a strong parole into heaven,& mayyybe that decision was clouded with some brotherly sentiments

But i think sending bigass eagles to scar the dark lord,attack his twisted creations & aid his sworn enemies not once but several times should be enough of an indictment on what manwë felt towards melkor throughout the the story

Or the fact at the end manwe had melkor's legs cut off & thrown to the void & refused his demands for forgiveness,cuz by that time he had no illusions left on his brothers nature

I get manwë isnt that well liked in the fandom like melkor but cmon guys lets use the littlest of media comprehension & not act in fix it AU fics that manwe would have stayed a pushover for melkor or wouldve desired still his companionship