Chapter I - Cormallen Retold

Author's Note: Many parts of this chapter will quote the fourth chapter of the sixth book of the Lord of the Rings series, but it only serves as an introduction for the rest of the tale. The writing in the following chapters will contain original text.

"Then [Gandalf] lifted up his hands and cried in a loud voice ringing above the din: 'The Eagles are coming!'...There came Gwaihir the Windlord, and Landroval his brother, greatest of all the Eagles of the North, mightiest of the descendants of old Thorondor, who built his eyries in the inaccesible peaks of the Encircling Mountains when Middle-earth was young."

"...[T]he earth rocked beneath their feet. Then rising swiftly up, far above the Tower of the Black Gate, high above the mountain, a vast soaring darkness sprang into the sky, flickering with fire. The earth groaned and quaked. The Tower of the Teeth swayed, tottered, and fell down; the mighty rampart crumbled; the Black Gate was hurled in ruin; and from far away, now dim, now growing, now mounting to the clouds, there came a drumming rumble, a roar, a long echoing roll of ruinous noise."

" 'The realm of Sauron is ended!' said Gandalf. 'The Ring-bearer has fulfilled his Quest.' "

" 'Twice you have borne me, Gwaihir my friend,' said Gandalf. 'Thrice shall pay for all, if you are willing. You will not find me a burden much greater than when you bore me from Zirak-zigil, where my old life burned away.' "

" 'I would bear you,' answered Gwaihir, 'whither you will, even were you made of stone' 'Then come, and let your brother go with us, and some other of your folk who is most swift! For we have need of speed greater than any wind, outmatching the wings of the Nazgûl.' "

" 'The North Wind blows, but we shall outfly it,' said Gwaihir. And he lifted up Gandalf and sped away south, and with him went Landroval, and Meneldor young and swift. And they passe over Udûn and Gorgoroth and saw all the land in ruin and tumult beneath them, and before them Mount Doom blazing, pouring out its fire."

"And so it was that Gwaihir saw [Frodo and Sam] with his keen far-seeing eyes, as down the wild wind he came, and daring the great peril of the skies he circles in the air: two small dark figures, forlorn, hand in hand upon a little hill, while the world shook under them, and gasped, and rivers of fire drew near. And even as he espied them and came swooping down, he saw them fall, worn out, or choked with fumes and heat, or stricken down by despair at last, hiding their eyes from death."

"Side by side they lay; and down swept Gwaihir, and down came Landroval and Meneldor the swift; and in a dream, not knowing what fate had befallen them, the wanderers were lifted up and borne... out of the darkness and the fire."

As they Eagles returned northward, there was an small eruption from the depth of Mount Doom that spewed cinder and small pieces of molten rock high in the air. One landed on he back of Meneldor, scorching some feathers and burning its way into his skin. He flinched at the pain, but focused on carrying Sam safely, and soon the pain disappeared.

The war was over. There were still many small battles to come, but Sauron was dead. In time, the Hobbits returned to the Shire, the Elves returned to their forests, the Dwarves to their mines, the Humans to their towns and cities, and the Eagles to their eyries in the mountains. The Fist Age was drawing to an end.