Ah, so maybe they did have wings...

[Iarwain]

I think that the passage mentioned at the beginning of the thread has nothing to do with flying. (edit: Of course obloquy just prooved me wrong there) However, I'm sure there are hundreds of other points where Tolkien has said "they passed over" while refering only to running, or even walking. Perhaps it would take a long time for Balrogs to get to Lammoth from Angband, but then think of Gandalf's swift trip to and from Valinor after the Balrog. And oh, wait, there's also Melian who "Vanished out of Middle-Earth to the gardens of Lorien to ponder her sorrows" just in a snap, and she was gone to Valinor! And think of Oromë's long horserides on Nahar to and from and to and from Middle-Earth seemingly in just a snap.

We also must remember that in fact, the balrogs were once Maiar, but were corrupted by Melkor's foul discord*. I do not believe that anywhere, a full description of a Balrog's uniform appearance would be, so here is a partial description from the Sil Ch. 3 :

And in Utumno he gathered his demons about him, those spirits who first adhered to him in the days of his splendour, and became most like him in his corruption: their hearts were of fire, but they were cloaked in darkness, and terror went before them; they had whips of flame. Balrogs they werre named in Middle-Earth in later days.

Now to my next point. Balrogs were Maiar, and Maiar, like Valar, were Ainur. Thus, when the Valar take on visible form we hear this :

Moreover their shape comes of their knowledge of the visible World, rather than of the World itself; and they need it not, save only as we use raiment, and yet we may be naked and suffer no loss of our being.

Now, later on in that passage we see Melkor try to take on visible form, and his mood, rather than his wish forms his monstrous figure. So, then, since Valar and Maiar are both Ainur and merely varying in power, we know that Maiar can also take form and change at their will.

However, since Valaraukar (also Maiar) were "most like him in his corruption" and they could also take and leave their "raiment" at will, and change to different appearences, wouldn't the forms they took on be relative (like Morgoth's) to their mood/corruption? And so, if that is true, and we presume that Balrogs (being Ainur) were not mindless drones, can't we also say that a Balrog's individual mood would create for him an individual appearance, with or without wings?

[ December 28, 2002: Message edited by: Iarwain ]

*Curiously enough, I've viewed this post many times over the past three years, and have only just noticed that I wrote "Melkor's discordinance" discordinance is, of course, not a word. Happily I've finally realized as much.

Laughing to myself,
Iarwain