August 28, 2003

Winged Balrog: Deduction and Assumption
Bob Praz

First of few happy moments this summer: YES! At long last TTT is out on DVD! I'd like to say that I was VERY angry and disappointed when they announced that it would only come out on the 26th of August. That's two days before school starts (for me)! Last year, Fellowship came out earlier and I had over a month or so to enjoy it without the disturbance of high school. Oh well, moving on...

Winged Balrogs; the debate rages on, only sometimes it lies dormant. Now it has awoken, and here is why I have always believed Balrogs have wings! hehe. First off, let's face it, the Balrog would be way cooler with wings; it just makes him more impressive and terrifying. However, if we must, we shall go straight to Tolkien's writing to debate this long-lasting question.
This is the line in the book that has all readers seperated on its meaning: "His enemy (the Balrog) halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings." Now Tolkien says its shadow stretched out "like" two vast wings. Many therefore assume this is just a metaphor (or, rather a simile, but let's not get into that), one of many that Tolkien uses throughout the book. I have always taken this phrase rather literally; the balrog has two great wings made of shadow. They don't serve for flying, apparently, but they are wings of some kind nonetheless. There is, also another sentence two paragraphs later that supports the idea that Tolkien imagined the Balrog with wings: "...suddenly it drew itself to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall..." Now some may consider this another metaphor, but this seems rather unlike of Tolkien according to his style of writing (in my opinion).
Of course, many things in LOTR are left open to questioning, but I wonder if the good professor knew that such a debate would arise from the rather small matter of the Balrog's wings. So I myself believe that the words in the book state that the Balrog has some form of wings, whether they are physical or merely shapes of shadow is up to your imagination. I would like to think they are physical, like in the movie (by the way, I think the Balrog in the movie is absolutely AWESOME), but some may prefer to compromise between both sides and assume that the wings are both real and/or immaterial.

Some may think that is either a strange or vague answer on my part, but it's the way I have always treated this matter. However, since I saw the movie, I absolutely love PJ's Balrog and I can't imagine a better incarnation for it. Of course, Servant of Eru brings up a good point when he started this debate: Why should balrogs all be the same? Of course they're all vaguely along the same demonic lines, but there's not really anything that says they didn't have different features.

That's all I have to say for now; at least I got it out of the way. In the end the answer to this debate is up to you.