February 20, 2002

Re: Balrog Wings (If Only It Were That Easy)
Brett C.

Sorry Shaun A., but if the arguement over the wings on a Balrog [or lack thereof] were so easy to settle it would have been over long ago. If you look a little further back in the same piece of text you quoted you will find the passage...'The Balrog reached the bridge...and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings.' Like two vast wings; not actually wings themselves, but the image of such to add to the demon's terror and Tolkien's imagery of the scene. And in regard to Gothuar's note about the similarities to the Nazgul on the river and the Balrog, Gimli was referring to the shadow of fear that both project, not any allusion to wings and flying. But really, as I said in an earlier article, the arguement, while an interesting intellectual excercise, should not overshadow [no pun]the greatness of the movie or the book.

Of course, a discussion on how BIG the Balrog should be might be interesting...