The home of the Eagles of the Misty Mountains, from which they patrolled the skies over the upper Vales of Anduin. Also called the Great Shelf, the Eyrie was the seat of the Lord of Eagles, protected by sheer and inaccessible cliffs. It was not within the main range of the Misty Mountains themselves, but on a peak that stood a little way out into the plain, eastward of the main mountain-chain, with the Eagles' shelf facing back westwards towards the Mountains.
When Thorin and Company were rescued from marauding Goblins and Wargs during the Quest of Erebor, the Eagles carried them up to the Eyrie. With the aid of the Eagles, with whom Gandalf had some familiarity, the party passed on from the Eyrie to the Carrock, another great rock protruding from the plain out eastward in the course of the Great River itself. Gandalf was not the only Wizard to call on the Eagles of the Eyrie for aid: they were also well known to Radagast, for whom they were ready to act as scouts during the War of the Ring.
Notes
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In common use, an 'eyrie' usually refers to the nest-site of a single Eagle, typically high on a cliff ledge or in a tall tree (and indeed it is used in this common sense several times in the text of The Hobbit). The Eyrie of the Eagles of the North seems to have been much more than this, a significant gathering place or settlement of the Lord of Eagles in the northern Misty Mountains.
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- Updated 30 November 2017
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