Dragons vs. Balrogs? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 03-08-2002, 10:09 PM

Thanks, Thingol, for the quotes on magic vs. goetia and the helpful conclusions regarding human magic. I would add a caution in one regard, though. You tend to describe the physical and spiritual battles as rather separate affairs, taking place perhaps at the same place, but not necessarily at the same time. I think that in both Tolkien's mythos and in reality (on which his mythos is healthily based), the physical and spiritual dimensions are not so easily teased out. I would go so far as to say that they cannot be so teased out one from the other. An author must make it appear so to some degree just because it's so hard to describe both at the same time. Tolkien was an exception of genius in this regard, but that also has to do with the fact that he was writing myth rather than just a novel. To sum up, I think that the Balrog was both physical and spiritual at once, and the battle with Gandalf was both physical and spiritual at once, and it clouds the issue to read into Tolkien's story an invisible spiritual battle that he does not even describe.

03-08-2002, 10:09 PM	#11
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	Thanks, Thingol, for the quotes on magic vs. goetia and the helpful conclusions regarding human magic. I would add a caution in one regard, though. You tend to describe the physical and spiritual battles as rather separate affairs, taking place perhaps at the same place, but not necessarily at the same time. I think that in both Tolkien's mythos and in reality (on which his mythos is healthily based), the physical and spiritual dimensions are not so easily teased out. I would go so far as to say that they cannot be so teased out one from the other. An author must make it appear so to some degree just because it's so hard to describe both at the same time. Tolkien was an exception of genius in this regard, but that also has to do with the fact that he was writing myth rather than just a novel. To sum up, I think that the Balrog was both physical and spiritual at once, and the battle with Gandalf was both physical and spiritual at once, and it clouds the issue to read into Tolkien's story an invisible spiritual battle that he does not even describe.