Do Balrogs Have Wings?

[Aiwendil]

Formendacil:

It should perhaps be noted that there is no evidence that Tolkien's perception of Balrogs as wingless ever changed. There are many examples of elements in the Tale remaining unchanged from its conception circa 1920 until its last known form in the early 1970s. And their is no real evidence that Tolkien ever changed his perception of this aspect of the Balrogs.

If we change "evidence" to "hard evidence", then I agree.

Fordim wrote:

Here, best as I can figure it, is the etymology of the word balrog:

bal is a form of the archaic bale, which is OE for "fire"

rog is a form of OE roge which means a "pyre"

So that makes sense, bal+rog = fire+fire.

Allow me to pick a nit. This is indeed interesting - but it is not right to call it "the etymology" of the word Balrog. The etymology of "Balrog" is:

bal Sindarin, from primitive Quendian root BAL- = "power"
rog Sindarin, from root primitive Quendian RUK- = "demon"