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Wraith of Angmar
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/bloody.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: Were Balrogs winged?
Well researched and well said. Indeed, it seems there may be room for winged Balrogs in Middle-Earth if one is willing to dig deep into the texts for abstruse references. This is not meant as an argument against your report, Underhill. We've enjoyed plenty of spirited talk of this and other topics, and I'm not about to rekindle this one. Instead, I wonder why it is necessary to dig so deep to find evidence of the possibility of flight and wings. Why did Tolkien, a wonderfully talented author capable of detailed description (and purple prose <img src=smile.gif ALT="
"> ), leave only shadowed clues? Was it his intention to leave an entire species of beings in perpetual shade? Was it an erroneous omission on his part that might have been corrected in time? Or was he undecided on the true physical nature of Balrogs, leaving their anatomy to the imagination of the reader? He certainly must have been aware of the controversy, but so far there have been no solid revelations discovered in his posthumous publications. Maybe HoME XXXVII will at last settle the matter.
The Barrow-Wight (RKittle)
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