Meneldor

The youngest of the three

Meneldor is named once in the histories, and only for a single flight. He was one of the Great Eagles of the Misty Mountains who came south with Gwaihir and Landroval to the battle before the Black Gate on March 25, T.A. 3019. He is described as young and swift, which is the reason he was chosen for the errand that followed.

When the Ring went into the fire and the Dark Tower fell, Gandalf asked Gwaihir to carry him at once into Mordor, and Gwaihir called his brother Landroval and the young Meneldor to fly with them. The three eagles outran the wind over the ruined plain, passed the collapsing towers of Sauron, and came to Mount Doom in its eruption. There they saw two tiny figures, Frodo and Sam, on a hill of ash with the fire rising around them. Gandalf directed the rescue, and each hobbit was lifted in an eagle's talons and carried out of the burning land. The hobbits woke fourteen days later in Ithilien.

Nature of the name

Meneldor's name is Sindarin and means something like sky-lord; it belongs to the same naming tradition as Gwaihir and Landroval, and its use for a young bird suggests that the eagles of the Misty Mountains kept the old Elvish tongue of their forebears. Nothing more is told of him, and there is no reason to think he did not return to the mountains with his lord after the war.

Not told; alive at the end of the War of the Ring.