Balrog Armor?
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Quite recently, I felt the urge to search Gandalf's name in Google Image. At first, I thought it nothing special, just a few pictures of Ian McKellen in his white attire. But this particular piece of artwork caught my I and I looked at it more closely.Attachment 540
At first I thought it nothing special, just another picture of Gandalf's battle with the demon, until something caught my eye. Look closely at the Balrog's chest and right-arm and you'll notice the plated armor. Would the Balrog(s) actually have armor of any sort, or would their likely thick-hide be enough to defend them against most attacks? |
An interesting thought, perhaps the Balrogs in the earlier ages had armor, though I would think that their skin would be tough enough. Perhaps they could have had tough skin, plus armor to make them even harder to beat.
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I have looked into this question and found some answers for you.
BoLT II: Fall of Gondolin/Glorfindel v Balrog Quote:
From BoLT II the Commentary on The Fall of Gondolin. CT says the following: Quote:
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And yet despite this, most of the artwork that I have seen (including those of Glorfindel's battle) have shown the Balrogs with niether helm nor plate, only weapons and muscle.
I guess they skipped a number of details in their studies before making them. |
I have looked through HoME 10, 11 and 12 which have later writings and so far I have found no futher reference to amour for Balrogs. It may be that most of the images use later views which do not mention either the 'Claws of Steel' or 'Iron Amour'.
I know that my own image of the Balrog (from when I first read LotR) was powerful, demonic and simply covered by shadow. So armour is the last thing I would expect :) |
Walking the line of off-topic and on; John Howe the artist of that illustration is one of my favorite Middle-Earth artists.
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Thats odd, I've always imagined Balrogs with armor if for no other reson than that they would need to be wearing something if for no other resan that that they would need somewhere to keep thier weapons (not only flaming whips, but also the swords shields and axes that they are said to have used at times) when they weren't using them.
On a slight veering I had have a question. We know that the balrogs whips burn with flames but waht about the swords and axes. For some reason I keep imagin them burning as well. |
Well, you don't need Armour to carry weapons, only belts for scabards and such.
As for Balrog weapons, they had of course Whips of Flame also they had Flaming Swords and Gothmog at least had an Axe Though I don't recall anything about that being aflame. |
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:mad:Ugh! I knew that the wings discussion would come up in this thread, and haven't we all heard well enough of THAT!
But nonetheless, the simple questions about flaming swords and axes have brought up another question in my mind. Would the armor also be alight with fire? Would the Balrog be wearing something rather... hot?:D:p |
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Balrog's armour is an interesting matter. I'm on my laptop now so I don't have my word copy of LoTR for quotes, but when Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli meet Gandalf in Fangorn Forest, Gandalf says they have no weapons that can harm him. Since both Gandalf and the Balrogs were Maiar, one would assume that third-age weapons would not be able to hurt a Balrog.
However, since we see Glorfindel slaying a Balrog, it could be assumed that they could be harmed by SOME weapons. So, in the first-age it seems likely (as shown before by others) that Balrogs wore armour. So the question is, would the lone Balrog that we know lived until the third age have kept their armour on? Well, first of all we know this balrog was trapped/hybernating for a couple ages, so I'd assume that when he emerged at first he was still on "first-age mode" meaning that he'd go to battle with his armour on. Whether he learned that no "modern" weapons would hurt him or not and decided to ditch the armour is anyone's guess. If I'm not mistaken, Gandalf's weapon was an ancient weapon from Gondolin so it COULD hurt the Balrog, as we see it does. Perhaps the reason why Gandalf, who was forbidden from showing his full power, was able to beat a Maiar without such restrictions is that the Balrog was no longer wearing his armour But of course, this is all mostly speculation |
Interesting points Farael.
Gandalf and the other Istari were forbiden from showing their full power in regards to the fight agains Sauron thereby preventing Men from becoming dependant on the intervention of "Higher Powers" in matters pertaining only to Middle-earth. However, I do not believe that this would cause a problem in the fight between Gandalf and Durin's Bane. The main reason that I think this is that Gandalf did everything he could to ensure that this fight was private. He told the rest of the fellowship to leave before he attempted to stop the Balrog and when he was pulled after the balrog his last words were 'Fly you fools'. So in the case of Gandalf vs Durin's Bane we have a private fight between 'Self-incarnate' Maia (Durin's Bane) and 'Incarnate' Maia (Gandalf). I think that by the time of TLoR it was not the weapons that was important but who was involved. Other than Maiar it was only "Great Elf Lords" who were able to defeat a Balrog and even then only at the cost of their own lives. Even Gandalf who as an Incarnate Maia could only defeat the Balrog at the cost of the life of his physical body. Had he not been sent back (probably by Eru himself) this fight would have been the end of his mission. What chance then that any other in the fellowship could have even defeated the Balrog let alone continued after? |
Lord G, I agree: but I might quibble with 'self-incarnate' referring to Balrogs. Literally 'made of meat' doesn't really cover a creature with a fana of shadow and flame!
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This might be slightly off subject, but do Balrogs have genders? I mean, how do they reproduce? Or do they? I knnow TOlkien got rid of the ideas of the children of the Vala, but was it also Maiar?
I also think that if Gandalf would be allowed to show his true power (but then he would be Olorin), he would be more likely to kill the Balrog, but when an earthly body like Gandalf, fights a celestial body (A Maia like Durin's Bane), then the earthly body dies. But because Olorin was a Maia he didn't properly die (because Maiar can't die) |
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