[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Just a quick note.

There have been a few people who have weighed in on the issue in the thread but who have failed officially to cast their vote. I wonder if they are pretending to achieve a resolution and then losing their nerve when it comes to actually nailing their colours to the masthead, as it were, in the form of a vote.

But back to this important topic:

I really don't see why the balrog not flying out of the abyss means that its wings don't work. . .

1) perhaps the cavern is too narrow for the wings to work (a brilliant little solution achieved by the film-makers)

2) this is my theory: it could have flown out but didn't want to. When Gandalf returns to the Fellowship he tells them that:

'Long I fell, and he fell with me. His fire was about me. I was burned.'

And then a bit further on:

'Ever he clutched me, and I hewed him, till at last he fled into dark tunnels.'

OK, so what point are these lines making? Well, rather an obvious one I should think: that Gandalf and the balrog are fighting with one another. Why would the balrog want to fly out of the abyss? He's trying to destroy Gandalf, and Gandalf is falling so "he fell with me". Neither one of them is afraid of being killed by the impact of falling because, well, they're maia. I can't imagine the balrog thinking "oh dear, an oopsie. I'm falling -- better fly away. I suppose I can let Olorin go, I've got something more important to do than kill him anyway. . ." The balrog's only thought when he starts to fall is, apparently, to destroy Gandalf as he takes the wizard with him rather than try to save himself (why not pull an Indianna Jones and use the whip as a safety line instead of to snare Gandalf?).

I can already anticipate someone saying that the balrog could have seized Gandal and flown out with him but again, why? Why grab your opponent in one hand only to bring him back up to where his companions are, much closer to escape, when he's already falling (without wings) into a darker and more terrible realm into which you can pursue him -- and if you have wings, that pursuit will be a whole lot easier.

The second quote demonstrates that this is not about two guys trying to get away from one another and save their own skin, but two Mighty Opponents trying to wipe each other out. When the balrog flees, Gandalf doesn't 'fly the coop' so to speak he -- like the balrog earlier -- goes after him.

But this is all just secondary. Mister Underhill's thesis alone is enough to satisfy me as to the presence and usefulness of balrog wings. Sure Gimli may not be a balrog expert, but he did see one!!