July 2, 2002

Ai Ai! More Balrogs
Kalimac the Green

I don't think balrogs have wings... not in their "true" form at least. In the Silmarillion, Chapter 11, of the sun and the moon, Arien the maia is mentioned as a "spirit of fire, whom Melkor had not decieved nor drawn to his service." Balrogs also were "spirits of fire", I might even go so far as to say the same kind of maiar as Arien. So if we assume that balrogs are like Arien, they must look like her too. She is described as being a "naked flame, terrible in the fullness of her splendour", when she stopped using the form she had taken in Valinor, and returned to her natural state. Now I don't think that flames have wings, so balrogs (in their natural state) must not have wings either. But you also have to remember that balrogs can change form, so I suppose that they could take on a form that has wings if they wanted to.

What do you think?