July 27, 2002

Wings, Shadow, and Sails
Smaug

This is a belated response to Mewlip's article on Balrog wings. He states that Tolkien wrote about the sails of a ship being like wings, and then went on to simply call the sails "wings." I disagree that this justifies dismissing the passage that says "and its wings were spread from wall to wall..." as the same type of thing. Wings and shadow are two different things.

Here are the reasons:

1. We know that Balrogs can change shape to some degree. In the first reference to Balrog wings Tolkien is describing its shadow in the likeness of wings. The next passage describes the state that its wings are in. It also states that "out of the shadow it drew a red flaming sword." It seems to me that the Balrog is made of some kind of a semi-shapless void of light, as the book also says that "it drew itself up to a great height," clearly altering even its own size. We can interpret from this information that part of the shapless void of light suddenly formed itself into wings - and as stated in previous articles, not to fly but to intimidate, just as the Balrog altered its size to intimidate. So in that sense Mewlip, we agree to a certain point if I'm catching your drift. I simply feel that Tolkien wasn't describing a wingless Balrog. It clearly had wings, and the shadow that was described wasn't simply a play on english when he later referred to "its wings."

2. The word "WINGS" has countless meanings. Dictionaries will go so far as to call certain fins on fish "wings." Even the sails found upon windmills are often called "wings." One of the definition of wings, is anything that performs a similar function to that of wings, providing a means of transportation or flight. A sail catches air causing movement. There is a clear association between wings and sails, thus for Tolkien to describe the sails on ships as "wings" was connotatively justified. No such association exists between wings and shadows. If you look up the word "wing" in the dictionary, you will never find a definition that says "a type of shadow."

Tolkien wouldn't have even used wings as a metaphor unless he envisioned some kind of wing shape, or appendage on the Balrog. It's clear that it had its own type of wings, that they were particular to the Balrog. Whether they were wings of a shadowy type substance, or slime, the fact remains that they were real wings. To argue that the Balrog didn't have wings seems exteemly far fetched to me. The fact that it was even brought up had annoyed me. That's all, but it's over now hopefully. Thanks for listening.