[obloquy]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

I don't know. Has anyone ever done any calculations on what Smaug's wingspan would need to be? What are the physics of Legolas being able to walk on top of snow? I feel comfortable discarding these suppositions about Balrogs, especially when they proceed from such little starting information. How tall, exactly, is a Balrog? What does it weigh? What anatomical device allows it to exude flame and shadow? You can't start doing math on completely conjectural figures and convince anyone who has any kind of a textual commitment to the wings debate.

Well I think most of us just assumed that Tolkien's imaginary history of our earth conforms to the same laws of nature. That Smaug was appropriately proportioned for flight is evidenced by the fact that he flew. The actual calculations don't really matter, unless someone challenges the logistics of him being X big, thus having Y wingspan, and still fitting into Z cavern. The same goes for his fire-breath: we assume there was some physiological mechanic that allowed for it, from the gland that shoots the flammable substance, to its ignition, to the fire-resistant flesh that must have coated his snout. The Balrog's flame and shadow may have been something different, something related to the eala's fiery nature. The math and biology of these things doesn't come into question, however, since reasonable assumptions can be made about them without creating conflicts.

Besides, I think it's the walls of the Hall that the wings are spread to, not the sides of the chasm, however big it is (we don't know). There's no textual evidence here at all as far as I can see, and not even enough of a basis for logical supposition or inference.

If there's a tiny little bridge across the gap I think it's reasonable to suppose that the gap, too, stretches from wall to wall. Otherwise there'd be less perilous ways to cross near the walls. If the bridge spans a 50-foot chasm, and if a chasm is, in fact, defined as "narrow," then the width of the room would necessarily be greater than 50 feet, and therefore so would the Balrog's literal wingspan. Such a wingspan would be unwieldy for a being that could fit through the man-sized doorways and halls of Moria. But I didn't mean to imply that the text called the gap "narrow," only that I once read an article that cited a dictionary entry qualifying chasms as such.