Of Bombadillos and Balrogs

[Elenhin]

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Re: Of Bombadillos and Balrogs

Balrogs in the BoLTs are somewhat different from the later Balrogs. There were thousands of them, they were made by Melko, they had no shadows surrounding them, and they were greater in size than later Balrogs.

In an early version of &quot;The Bridge of Khazad-Dum&quot; Tolkien wrote that the Balrog was not only man-shaped, but man-sized as well. After writing that, he wrote a note to himself: &quot;Change the description of the Balrog. It felt larger than it looked.&quot;

To make it feel larger, he introduced the shadow-cloak and the words &quot;yet greater&quot;. While it could be argued that these two words mean that the Balrog was giant-sized, I don't think that, in the light of the earlier version, it is very probable.

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Elenhin

"My god, it's full of stars!"</p>