August 26, 2003

Balrogs, Anyone?
Servant of Eru

If I am not mistaken, before the website went down, one of us had tried to start the heated debate of whether or not balrogs have wings. Of course, that could have been started right before I left on vacation and was unable to check the site for two weeks, so maybe you finished out the debate...? Someone set me straight on this. If the attempted debate was lost with the rest of the posts and information, then allow me to restart it.

"Balrogs: Wings or Not?"

It seems that there are two stereotypes for balrogs. Those that are large, evil, fiery, and winged, and then there are those that are large, evil, fiery, and have no wings. What if those two descriptions were combined as one? Seeing as how Maiar are not limited to a single gender (ex. Melian and Gandalf) or powers (ex. Sauron and Radagast the Brown), why must balrogs all be exactly the same? Say one was made with a nice pair of large wings with which it could, say, spread from wall to wall in a large, underground cavern. Then there are those that merely passed over Hithlum to the aid of their captured master, with no reference whatsoever to wings(Silmarillion fans are with me on this one). What does everyone think?

One more question and I'll quit. Where would balrogs' spirits go to when they are killed? Would they be thrown into the Void, like Morgoth or what?