Mental picture of the balrogs?

[Aldaron]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Haunting Spirit
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/sting.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: Mental picture of the balrogs

Back in the early 70s at a science fiction convention in California, attendees were treated to an exhibition of forty-plus paintings by Tim Kirk based on LotR. Tim was awarded a Master Degree in Fine Arts for those paintings, as they were the equivalent of his thesis. A couple of those paintings have shown up on Barrowdowns home page in the last couple of weeks. I was delighted to see them. As I recall there was one painting of Gandalf vs. the balrog in the Mines of Moria. The balrog towered over Gandalf, dwarfing him. I always carried that image in my mind when I read that part of the book; the immense size in comparison with Gandalf, who seemed ever so mortal in comparison. Samwise mentions great wings and red eyes and that was a part of the balrog's portrait.

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