Originally posted by Exa
"His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings"
"its wings were spread from wall to wall"😛
... though this does not mean they could fly (because obviously they couldnt)... as their whole appearance, it's just illusion. Being an Ainu, the Balrog is not bound to his body, he often also seems to change his size.
shouldnt this be in a balrog-thread 😛
Maybe Balrogs are like..Ostriches...*shrugs*
@Thor: Dude, if there were female Balrogs....could you tell the difference?
Well, since Balrogs were Maiar, they're technically not male or female. It's like is God male or female. However, they can assume the shape of male/female, as with the Valar, Melian
As for the wings thing, go to the Encyclopedia of Arda and look up Balrogs. There's a nice discusion as to whether Balrogs have wing or not, or whether they have any purpose
Originally posted by Agent Elrond
Well, since Balrogs were Maiar, they're technically not male or female. It's like is God male or female. However, they can assume the shape of male/female, as with the AInur, Melian
True, but Tolkien writes somewhere (couldnt found the right quote) that already in the beginning their spirits were either more female or male, so theoretically they could chose their shape, but they never changed it - Valier always remained Valier, Valar Valar.
I think a more appropriate question from the beginning would have been, "Did the Balrog of Khazad-dum have wings when the Fellowship ran into it?" Valaraukar were spirits of fire, very, very powerful ones. Sauron was a great spirit, and he could change his shape to whatever he felt necessary to look like. Though I doubt a Balrog has the kind of control needed to conceal its fiery form in the body of an Elf-look-alike, or a Man, it could probably change shape to some degree. Sauron didn't lose his ability to change shape until after his body was badly, badly damaged in the fall of Numenor, and when he returned (I don't think he fully lost the body, because he carried the Ring back to Mordor with him, as he had it in Numenor and nobody noticed (Tolkien's letters)), he had lost the ability but could still at least rebuild a new body. The Balrog of Khazad-dum had never "fallen" per se. It was still fairly peachy from its entire age of rest, so I would assume it could shape-shift.
As for whether or not the Balrog had wings in Khazad-Dum, it can be seen as literal or metaphorical, and the debate has about as much chance of being settled as those of creation versus evolution, or for some American History, the literal and flexible interpretation of the Constitution.
This are the most common thesis of arguments:
Why would he call them wings, if they weren't wings?
How come a 'WINGED' steed of the Nazgul reminded Gimli of the Balrog?
The Balrog was a creature of shadow, so of course its wings were of shadow, IT IS SHADOW!
How could Balrogs go with "winged" speed in The Silmarillion to Melkor's aid?
He could of course, have referred to the wings as merely great shadows and clouds and smokes that came off the Balrog in a generic shape that appeared 'wingish'. The Hellhawk could have reminded Gimli of it merely because it was dark shadow against light, and evil in nature. As spirits of fire, the Balrogs might have chosen to have the ability to cloak themselves in shadow, hence, "Shadow Flame".
Going with 'winged speed' is actually a fairly common phrase used about things without wings, it just means really fast. Why did he use the term wings or winged so often? Who knows? Maybe Tolkien envisioned them as winged at some times, maybe not.
Do we just have to either weigh the arguments against each other and pick out the one that seems most likely, keep reading and find out something we haven't, or just stick to original ideas? Do Balrogs have wings? Who knows? Were Sauron's actual eyes, his physical eyes, fiery yellow cat-eyes? Who knows? We could argue that they are, but for all we know that's only a 'spiritual' representation of his vigilance, or metaphor like the 'wings'.
Some things we will never know, but we all have the rights to believe and interpret some of the proofs and evidences the way we want.
"Wings are in the eye of the beholder..." 😛
Two cents. 😉