It's been so long I forgot my own position back at the time...
lucky it gives one their own choice in italics, so I must have been of the no-winger party if this software is to be trusted...
But,
skip spence, surely you don't imply that whatever walked out at Gandalf and Co was nothing more than an undersized excuse for a balrog that only grew in the telling over the ages the tale has been told?
Why should we diminish its stature in order to get rid of its wings (if any)?