Do Balrogs Have Wings?

[obloquy]

Originally Posted by Sardy

Apologies if this is a naive or ill-informed question... but is anyone in a position to ask Christopher Tolkien (or an authority in the Tolkien Society) to settle the dispute? I would be willing to take CT's informed opinion as law...

If C. Tolkien could settle this dispute unequivocally then he would have more publishing to do: a lot of people would want (demand?) to see the text from which he drew his conclusion. Barring unpublished material, C.'s informed opinion is no more authoritative than those presented in this thread (though it may be more "informed").