Do Balrogs Have Wings?

[Neithan]

And meanwhile, wasn't the air in the mines, especially at the bridge, cold and sinking? No hot updrafts? So even a jet (or an eagle) might have dropped in those conditions, as they sometimes do when encountering downdrafts while crossing mountains.

That may be true, but this is not the only instance of Balrogs falling. Two "died" by falling of cliffs. If Tolkien meant for Balrogs to be able to fly, he would not have written three instances where they fell, without giving any explanation of why they didn't just fly away. So, even without the damning evidence provided by child, we can say, beyond all reasonable doubt, that Balrogs could not fly.
We know that Sauron changed into a flying creature and flew away, so it stands to reason that the Balrogs as Maiar could have given themselves wings that worked. I can't see that Balrogs would give themselves wings to intimidate but decide that they didn't want these wings to work. That would be incredibly stupid.

I think that Balrogs could've had wings if they chose but didn't have wings so they couldn't fly but if they did they still couldn't fly unless they wanted to fly in which case they could but only if they had had wings but they didn't have wings since they couldn't fly.

Why was this quote largely ignored?

[obloquy]

Why was this quote largely ignored?

I think that quote was a joke.

[mark12_30]

If HoME XXVIII has been published, I want to know how we all missed the publication of 14-27.

[the phantom]

They weren't published. I raided CT's house and took them. They go up to XXXI. They're great. XVII includes a drawing of elvish ears. They are not pointy. They're round, and sort of resemble oranges. It doesn't look like they can be used to fly. There's also a balrog drawing. It doesn't have wings, but a note at the bottom adds that balrog wings would be pointed if they had them.

[mark12_30]

"Angel of music", indeed! That's quite an opera, and well sung!

[Mister Underhill]

There is also this quotation that suggests Melkor’s own inability to fly. If the Balrogs knew how to fly, why would Melkor not go and get the secret from his own allies, rather than trying to capture eagles to force the information from them?

On the other hand, there are citations aplenty regarding winged servants of Morgoth, the most obvious of which is Thuringwethil, "the messenger of Sauron, [who] was wont to fly in vampire's form to Angband..." See also the words of Carcharoth in the Lays: "Though winged creatures to and fro unnumbered pass here, all I know."

The speculation on the dimensions of the hall in the Encyclopedia of Arda is just that -- pure speculation. We can't draw any reliable inference of the dimensions of the hall side of the bridge based on the width of the chasm; there's no correlation between the two.

As far as the Chamber of Mazarbul -- there's no reason to think that wings would make a stitch of difference as to whether or not a winged or unwinged Balrog would be able to pass through the door. Why wouldn't a Balrog, like any winged creature, be able to fold its wings into its body? By the same logic, no garden-variety songbird should be able to fit through the round hole of a bird-house.

You can read all the "wings", "winged", "flying", etc. figuratively, but there sure seem to be a lot of wing references cropping up in relation to Balrogs. The debate surges on!

[Bêthberry]

posted by Mr. Underhill

You can read all the "wings", "winged", "flying", etc. figuratively, but there sure seem to be a lot of wing references cropping up in relation to Balrogs. The debate surges on!

Clearly, some of us are winging it while others are not.