Were Balrogs winged?

[Grey Fool]

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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/nenya.jpg" align=absmiddle> Honestly.

There's nothing quite like a debate for debate's sake, is there? OBVIOUSLY JRRT conceived the Balrog as a winged creature - it says so in FotR, as has been quoted already. The writing need not be interpreted to mean anything other than it says.

As to the purpose of the wings, now there's another matter. It seems likely to me that the Durin's Bane had wings not really for practicality's sake; after all flying around inside a disused mine would be pretty hazardous for anyone that size. I reckon they were put there to fit the Balrog to the commonly perceived image of a Demon or Devil, in other words the wings are the part that most readers are familiar with and can relate to from mythology and so on. Tolkien was adept at drawing on innate images to act as a hook in his writing: wings, pointed ears, sharp teeth, eyes that glow, blah blah etc etc.. all classic popular images, put in as helpful guides. (I wonder if he had any idea about the amount of trouble they would cause in the future?)

To continue briefly in this literal vein - Perhaps the Balrog of Moria is the definitive Balrog, and any other sort of outdoor specimens are just mere offspring or pale shadows. It would make sense for the outdoor Balrogs to have wings for them to get about etc, especially if they wanted to stay out of sight of other ground-dwellers. Natural selection would imply that for a mine-dweller to have wings and an outdoor Balrog to be wingless, would be a bit backward. Possibly Natural Selection has nothing to do with it in this case; perhaps any outdoor Balrogs would have been wingless mutants, outcasts, rejects or something. Whatever they were, they kept themselves extremely quiet at some most exciting times <img src=indifferent.gif ALT=":/"> .

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