Boldogs, Gothmogs and Sauron's New Clothes

[Petty Dwarf]

Being so low on the scale of power, these Boldogs would likely have been tied to a single incarnate form (hence their ability to reproduce and mate with other proto-Orks), and would thus have definitely been "slay-able", just as the more powerful Balrogs were. Also, as with the more powerful Balrogs, these Boldogs would not have been like to reincarnate themselves.

I don't know if I agree with Boldogs being tied to a single incarnate form. Leaving room for variability I'm sure some could have been, while others were not. I always read the sentence "Thus it was that the histories speak of Great Orcs or Orc-captains who were not slain, and who reappeared..." as "Orc-captains who were slain but not killed, and who reappeared...". Perhaps due to a confusion in the definition, what made me make the leap was the fact that Boldog the orc-captain obviously died in Doriath, yet Tolkien puts forth his name as one that reappears. There is a purposeful contradiction here, created by Tolkien.

I also don't think a Boldog was very much further down from a Balrog. They were described as "only less formidable than the Balrogs". Read with the emphasis on the "less". The greater ones at least were horrifying, and probably more trollish than orkish.

So could a Balrog become a Boldog in rehousing?

Whether this applies to Melkor alone, or also to lesser fallen Ainu, is not clear

In the same Orcs passage from Quendi and Eldar it states specifically that Melkor had no children. It seems as if reproduction was for some Ainu and not for others. But any who did must have been tied to a single incarnate form.