LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 05 - The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

[Formendacil]

Ah! There's still some fire in the old dispute, after all! (Though perhaps it's fitting that my challenge comes from a newer member, rather than a survivor of the Balrog Wing Wars of the mid-aughts. ;-) )

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

With that in mind, the question of whether it has wings is trivial to answer: yes, it does, Tolkien tells us so directly.

See, you say this and then you immediately quote:

Originally Posted by The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

...the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings.

I, uh, may have added a little non-authorial emphasis...

However, the reason we in the non-wing camp are so vociferous in our opposition rests on that little, but mighty word: "like." If Tolkien meant that the balrog stretched its wings, he would have said so. If he meant that it stretched its wings of shadow, he would have said so. If he meant the shadow of its wings, he would have said so.

Instead, he saids "the shadow" (i.e. the balrog) reached out like two vast wings. "Like" functions to compare things. If Tolkien is saying that "the shadow-wings stretched out like wings," he has come up with the most atrociously unimaginative simile possible.

I do, however, think that Huinesoron actually agrees with me, even if he doesn't know it:

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

The wings are of Shadow, just as the mane is of Flame. You wouldn't deny that the Balrog has a mane, even though it's obviously not hair (which would burn away): it is animate fire. Well, the wings are of animate shadow (they must be animate - shadows don't spread out naturally!).

As to whether Balrogs always have wings... well, that's a very different question.

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

The Balrog of LotR is, as described by Aragorn, 'both a shadow and a flame'. It's actually interesting to reflect on the difference between this and the Fall of Gondolin version, which is very obviously a corporeal soldier - here, I don't think it's necessarily true that the Balrog has a single physical 'body' at all. It is Shadow, only vaguely condensed into man-shape; when it passes over the fire, it becomes Flame and Shadow both.

I think there's a lot more traction to be gained arguing that balrogs don't possess corporeal forms as we think of them--they may not have the true mutability of form that the Valar do, or Sauron pre-Akallabêth, but they aren't substantive creatures in the same way as Men or Elves. If one focuses on THIS element, I think it is possible to say that the whole wings/no-wings argument misses the point.

But, of course, that means that, not having bodies per se, balrogs are excluded a priori from having wings.