[Dain]

I have to look over the text again, but I remember it much as Annunfuiniel has translated it (except that "wings" was much less literal [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]), the Balrog towering over Gandalf, but then I may be influenced by most of the pictures I've seen of it (even before the film). The passage from HoME is interesting, though, and I think Balrog's were probably much more man-sized than in the film or most artwork. Sometimes Gandalf is described as growing in size as a projection of his power and menace (like the scene in bag-end where he towers over Bilbo in the start of the FotR film), so why couldn't a Balrog play the same kind of trick. I think that even the gods are also more human-scale--elves battle both Balrog's and Morgoth himself, though I always felt there was a suggestion of size difference there.

On the other side, it is fun to picture then as big fiery demons with wings and all (though the horns were a big un-original). In much mythology/legend, a hero will slay a giant or a dragon, even though it is much bigger than him, so I don't think that even if a Balrog were 20 feet tall it would make much difference to Gandalf or Glorfindel, who are very powerful beings despite their relative size. And everybody knows relative size doesn't bother the greatest warriors in ME... [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]