In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, the eagles were immense flying birds that were sapient and could speak. Often emphatically referred to as the Great Eagles, they appear, usually and intentionally serving as agents of eucatastrophe or deus ex machina, in his legendarium, from The Silmarillion and the accounts of Númenor to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
