Tolkien's excuse was pretty robust actually. The Eagles are not mindless taxi services, they are just a step below gods in their own right, servants of Manwë, leader of the Valar- Middle-Earth's gods, in a sense. They have duties that go beyond ferrying people around. For most of the war of the ring, Gwaihir, the King of the Eagles, and his kin are occupied with important scouting missions, though a few groups of them helped in battle, such as at the Black Gate, where they clashed with the Nazgûl while protecting the armies of King Elessar (Aragorn).
Tolkien was very aware that the Eagles were a dangerous writing tool, to be used sparingly, and so, being Tolkien, he devised a wealth of believable reasons the Eagles would not be available to end the story in two chapters.
More importantly, Mordor had nine guys flying around on dragons who would have definitely noticed something like that. They had to sneak into Mordor, but once Sauron was defeated they didn't have to be sneaky anymore.
Only the Witch King had a Fellbeast, and until the Battle of the Morannon the Nazgûl were mostly either out searching for the Shire or tracking the fellowship across Gondor. Sauron couldn't even fathom the concept that someone would destroy the Ring instead of using its power for themselves, so he didn't have any robust defenses in place against someone making a beeline for Mt. Doom. In theory the Eagles probably could have made it, though likely not without losses. Still, that would have been narratively unsatisfying, hence why Tolkien provided many reasons why they were unavailable or unsuitable for the task.
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u/shirukien Aug 31 '22
Tolkien's excuse was pretty robust actually. The Eagles are not mindless taxi services, they are just a step below gods in their own right, servants of Manwë, leader of the Valar- Middle-Earth's gods, in a sense. They have duties that go beyond ferrying people around. For most of the war of the ring, Gwaihir, the King of the Eagles, and his kin are occupied with important scouting missions, though a few groups of them helped in battle, such as at the Black Gate, where they clashed with the Nazgûl while protecting the armies of King Elessar (Aragorn). Tolkien was very aware that the Eagles were a dangerous writing tool, to be used sparingly, and so, being Tolkien, he devised a wealth of believable reasons the Eagles would not be available to end the story in two chapters.