I'm very confused by this quote, found in Sean Crist's article Could the eagles have flown Frodo into Mordor?
"The Eagles are a dangerous 'machine'. I have used them sparingly, and that is the absolute limit of their credibility or usefulness. The alighting of a Great Eagle of the Misty Mountains in the Shire is absurd; it also makes the later capture of G. [Gandalf] by Saruman incredible, and spoils the account of his escape." (Letter 210)
Here's how I interpret it:
The Eagles are problematic, and because of this, I have not used them much in my stories.
I don't understand this:
and that is the absolute limit of their credibility or usefulness. The alighting of a Great Eagle of the Misty Mountains in the Shire is absurd; it also makes the later capture of G. [Gandalf] by Saruman incredible, and spoils the account of his escape."
What exactly is "the absolute limit of their credibility or usefulness"? What does that mean?
The alighting of a Great Eagle of the Misty Mountains in the Shire is absurd
Why is that? And does this simply mean that he means that it's "absurd" for a Great Eagle to descent somewhere in the Shire? How so? Why is it absurd?
it also makes the later capture of G. [Gandalf] by Saruman incredible, and spoils the account of his escape."
I understand each word, and I know how the story goes, but don't grasp at all what is meant by this.
Unfortunately, a lot of Tolkien quotes from letters make very little sense to me in the way they are written. It's not that he uses very difficult words, but they seem to make no sense to my brain.