Mordor Special Mission Flying Corps emblem

Another interesting and worthwhile article in Hither Shore no. 20 is Gianluca Meluzzi’s "The Heraldic devices of The Silmarillion", particularly its appendix in which he describes the emblem of Mordor Special Mission Flying Corps. To tell the truth, I had not know about its existence until I read this article, and I bet many Tolkien fans don’t know about it. For those, here’s some more info on it: https://anthropologyarda.tumblr.com/post/165492758017/ttrtru-anthropologyarda-just-in-case-you

One thing that Meluzzi muses about in his article is the symbolism of the many eyes on the emblem, concluding that it’s  striking and inexplicable. What immediately came into my mind looking at the picture was that the numbers, 6 and 8 are exactly one less than the numbers of rings given to Dwarves and Men. And if one counts in the two red eyes on the monster’s head, it just sums up. So perhaps they may symbolise Sauron’s power over them (?). Again, I shared this my thought with the author and this was his response:

"the more I think on your explanation, the more I believe you're right. A strong asymmetry was needed, so a good idea was to represent 7 eyes on a wing and 9 on the other. But it was too simple a solution, so the two red eyes of the Nazgul may have taken over one from each wing, as to say that the Ringwrights, wathever their origin (Human or -in case- Dwarf), act as eyes for the Eye."

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