Do Balrogs Have Wings?

I'm just thinking about this and I voted that the balrogs do have wings; but not necessarily can fly. If I remember correctly; when the Balrog attacks it gets described as having wings at one point.Don't quote me as I don't have the books with me. But a question that is getting asked is if the wings worked. If they did work why couldn't he just fly away from Gandalf in mid-air while they are falling. I don't think everyone will ever be happy with the answer.

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Uh oh.....here we go again......

[Folwren]

If the balrog in the LotR had wings (and could fly) why did he even bother to use the bridge while Gandalf was holding it?

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

I learned something interesting recently....

A couple of weeks ago we had a bird trapped in the stovepipe to our old wood-burning stove. We couldn't get to it through the grilles and so we kept hoping it would fly out. Sadly, it never did and expired after a couple of days.

I was curious as to why it couldn't fly out and so I asked a friend of mine who teaches biology if he could help. He explained to me that only certain flying insects can truly hover, which is the ability to remain steady in the air or to go up or down without any lateral movement. Birds and bats, it seems, can only fly if they are going forward as well as up or down....

So hmmmm......if the balrog had bird- or bat-like wings they would have been useless in the enclosed space of the hall and more than useless, even hindrances, in the confines of the chasm. Now if it had wings like a bee or a dragonfly it could have easily flown to safety....now there's an amusing image.

[Boromir88]

Fordim, which is exactly why the argument that 'If the Balrog had wings why didn't it fly' doesn't work. However, what does work is this argument, which should totally disprove of a wing theory:

His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings.~Bridge of Khazad-dum

There is no other meaning or interpreation of this sentence except the fact that it is a simile. Tolkien is comparing the shadow of the balrog as being like wings. Also note, it doesn't say here that the Shadow of the balrog looked like wings, but that the shadow had reaches out like something had wings would unfold their wings.

Picture a bird again When it's just sitting still it's wings are folded up, however when it goes to 'fly' the wings reach out and unfold. That's the comparison here that's being made.

So, Tolkien is comparing the shadow of the balrog to wings. But it's not in the sense that the shadow had took the form of wings, and looked like wings, but the way it 'reaches' out was like two vast wings.

Then a little bit further down we have this quote:

It stepped forward slowly onto the bridge, and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall.~ibid

Here there is no 'like' or 'as' but it's still a metaphor, more specifically it's an extended metaphor. It is pretty bad writing technique to use the word like or as to want to compare two different things. So, what authors like to do is use extended metaphors and this is most similar in poetry (where entire stanza or poems could just be long extended metaphors). The poet/author doesn't want to use the word like/as to draw a comparison everytime so they set up the comparison (using like or as) and keep the comparison going longer, keep it on, hence the name 'extended metaphor.'

What we have here is Tolkien clearly sets up that the shadow of the balrog were like wings, and he keeps that comparison going in the second quote.

Let's say you don't even believe me and you want to deny the common literary devices of writing. Let's think about it from a logical stance as well. We quite clearly know the height of a balrog. The most Tolkien ever conceived a balrog as being was twice the size of Glorfindel...however these are Tolkien's earliest drafts and by LOTR it's quite clear that Balrogs were roughly man-size, maybe a little more, maybe a little less.

This would put the Balrog at around 6-7 feet. Now what we have here in Moria is a chasm, a chasm is an area that is wider than it is long. That would mean the Balrog would have to have absolutely humorgous wings if he actually had literal wings that spread out from wall to wall. This would be extremely inproportianate. Something that was man-size and man-shape, as we are told, it just can't be possible for the Balrog to have a wingspan of say 70 feet (a conservative guess).

You also bring up mobility issues, the Balrog was quite agile, it 'leaped' it 'jumped' and I just can't see a 6-7 foot creature, with wings that when full spread would be over 10 times the size of his body, to be able to move around the mines as Durin's Bane is able to.

There you have it. If you don't believe in common writing devices authors use (similes, metaphors, extended metaphors...etc)...it's still not even logically possible for a Balrog to literally have wings. As if it did, the wings would not be proportionate to his body, and it would be terribly hard for him to be mobile in the mines carrying around wings at least 10 times the size of his body.

[Mithalwen]

But Boromir, lots have things have wings but cannot fly, penguins, emus, chairs, theatres, houses...and according to some people... buffalo ...

[Raynor]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

This would put the Balrog at around 6-7 feet. Now what we have here in Moria is a chasm, a chasm is an area that is wider than it is long. That would mean the Balrog would have to have absolutely humorgous wings if he actually had literal wings that spread out from wall to wall. This would be extremely inproportianate. Something that was man-size and man-shape, as we are told, it just can't be possible for the Balrog to have a wingspan of say 50 yards (a conservative guess).

I believe this is the EoA theory, right? There might be two explanations - either not all balrogs are the same size (I don't see a problem with that, the balrogs being self incarnate and what not) - either we have the size of the wings (or of their shadows if you will) is distorted in an environment with a rather fuzzy light.

As far as the simile is concerned, there is another case where a simile introduces a being with wings:

Originally Posted by In the house of Tom Bombadil, FotR

Suddenly a shadow, like the shape of great wings, passed across the moon. The figure lifted his arms and a light flashed from the staff that he wielded. A mighty eagle swept down and bore him away.

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

But Boromir, lots have things have wings but cannot fly, penguins, emus, chairs, theatres, houses...and according to some people... buffalo ...

Penguins fly in the water. *a decisive nod*