Well, I've come up with a new theory to cover for my egregious mistake regarding the Battle of the Powers and the War of Wrath (which I have corrected by editing my posts, so don't look for it. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img])
As we know, Balrogs were killed. This, as I have argued very recently in another topic, tells us that they were
incarnate rather than simply
clothed. But why were they incarnate? The Ainur would become more and more bound to their physical forms as they enjoyed the pleasures available to material beings. The most binding of these being eating and begetting. I suggested the following in another thread:
Quote:
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By way of speculation, consider this: The Balrogs don't seem to be able to change their shape or abandon their physical forms. Why? Perhaps Morgoth gave them the women-folk of Men (or Elves, for that matter), and allowed them to "take them". They would have been more and more bound to their forms, and Morgoth would have been given warriors with the potent blood of a Maia running through their veins
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This is a possibility, but a convenient little side point is the fact that at the time of the Battle of the Powers (at which all Balrogs were supposedly withered) Men had not yet come into the scene. So is it possible that
before these Balrogs began partaking of the gifts incarnates enjoyed (reminiscent of the Bible account of the origin of the demons) they were capable of existing separate from their bodies?
I believe so. This means that following the Battle of the Powers, the Balrogs that were withered could have formed new bodies for themselves to await Morgoth's return. Later, when Morgoth was back in action, they gradually became incarnates (as Morgoth himself did) and were therefore able to be utterly killed.
It may be mostly speculation, and as such does not help the new Silm project much, but it handily explains the AAm note of '3 or 7'. I'd also say it seems a very reasonable possibility, particularly when one considers how much it resembles Biblical events.
[ June 07, 2003: Message edited by: obloquy ]