I made an arguement about Balrog size in one of the 'wings' threads. Going by LOTR references in Moria we can get a clue.
While they are fleeing the orcs a "great fissure had opened" which was later bridged by slabs of stone carried by trolls. How big a slab could a troll carry? I doubt anything longer than 15 ft or so, and sufficiently wide and thick to serve as a bridge. So we can guess the chasm less than 15 ft wide. Then it says later that the Balrog leapt the fissure "with a great rush". If it was so huge, why not step across? It seems it needed to make a running leap to cross the fissure. From a running leap a normal fit human can clear 6-8 ft easily, so given that the balrog was "man-shape maybe, yet greater" we can guess about twice as big for twice as long a leap. So 12ft about?
Then later the balrog actually stands on the bridge, which is described as "narrow, slender, and built for enemies to pass single file". Guess about 3 ft, or roughly shoulder width then? A 12 ft Balrog could stand on this, yet nothing much larger would find purchase for its feet.
Then when the balrog and Gandalf clashed swords, "the wizard swayed on the bridge, stepped back a pace, then again stood still"
Now Maia or not, Gandalf is restricted to the limitations of his human body. That would include mass and inertia. I think anything much bigger than a 12 ft balrog would have simply swept Gandalf off the bridge with his blow.
Next we have the scene where the Balrogs whip is "dragging him to the brink". Gandalf "grasped vainly at the stone" clearly showing he was being dragged slowly, yet surely by the balrogs weight. By cube square law for a doubling in dimensions you get a quadruple in volume. A 12ft Balrog would have weighed about 800 lbs (given a 6 ft man at 200). Anything much heavier than that would simply have dragged Gandalf over without any hesitation.
My two pennies worth.
[ February 05, 2002: Message edited by: Yaish ]
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