Balrogs.....

[Greymantle]

Better than Orcs and Men. But I'm going to stop thinking about that now.

 

[Cian]

How tall is your Ball (rog) ?

Just for interest sake, the Balhog that fought Glorfindel (Lost Tales) was described as twice Glorfindels stature. Cheating here, ie mixing the expected Elven stature based on other writings, I'd put this Noldo at about seven feet or slightly taller, considering his paragon-al fame. The math I leave to math-e-marticians more skilléd than I! (Tolkien commented in a very late note that this duel may need revision in any case)

In the early draft of the Balrog encounter, the creature was originally described as no more than man-high interestingly, though we do see "... man-shape maybe, yet greater" in the final opening description of course.

The same draft mentions no "vast", or any, "wings" or shadow incidently (and the creature is clearly seen!). Tolkien revised this of course, even writing a notation to himself to alter the description of the Balrog ...

And just for bringing in the 'wings' topic! here, rest assured I will indeed forfeit my next roll of the dice and go back two spaces!

PS: it did have a "mane" of some sort.

 

[Telchar]

man-shape

This might not mean that a Balrog looks like man, it may, but on the other hand it might mean that it, the Balrog, had two arms, two legs, a head, and walked like a man, but the of it's body could look like hmm.. a bull..

 

[Cian]

... it's body could look like hmm.. a bull..

But then it might be Mundorauco rather, "Bull-demon"

 

[Telchar]

Hehe.. Maybe a bad suggestion, but the first thing that came into my mind was "horse", and I didn't think that would fitt so good..

 

[Greymantle]

Er...... neigh, verily it worketh not. Hyuk hyuk.

 

[Talierin]

Man-shaped could also just be a "medieval" way of saying it was bipedal...........

 

[Telchar]

Originally posted by Talierin
bipedal

Does that mean walk "upright" and on two legs?

 

[Greymantle]

Technically I think bipedal just means two-footed...but presumable it would also walk upright, it'd be kinda hard tp drag yourself around on two legs!

 

[Strider]

have you ever tried running on all four limbs? that's hard, no, not hard, impossible, because your rear legs are designed for upright movement. since ball (rogs) *LMAO* leapt a lot, i'd expect their legs as EXTREMELY long, maybe their torso length?

 

[ReadWryt]

I've just poured over all the entries in the Silmarillion and Fellowship of the Ring about Balrogs and I have found one incidence where a Balrog lept...and that was onto the bridge with Gandalf.

 

[Telchar]

IIRC there is one more incident mentioned in the story, during the fight between Glorfindel and the Balrog during/after the fall of Gondolin. I am not sure and I can't check it right now, since I don't have the Book of Lost Tales at work..

 

[Strider]

actualy, yes, the balrog leapt upon glorifindel, also, how about this phrase- "and when melkor screamed, the balrogs, his servants, ushed to him with winged speed" it could mean two things, one: the balrogs had wings and flew to melkor, two: the balrogs had long legs and ran to melkor. maybe the balrog is like that of our mdern devil, hooved feet, horned top, muscular, and backwards jointed legs. but i think that's where the similarity ends.

 

[Gothmog]

Balrogs Again!!

We have had many questions and opinions about what Balrogs looked like but we all agree that they are Maiar! So then, that being the case. Why is it that when they are defeated they disappear never to be seen again? After all Sauron was also a Maia and he kept returning!

 

[Eomer Dinmention]

yeah good question but maybe because Balrogs arent Mairs but thats my opinion yeah so you don't have to follow it

 

[ReadWryt]

From the Valaquenta of the Silmarillion, the chapter entitled "Of the enemies"...

"...But he was not alone. For of the Maiar many were drawn to his splendour in the days of his greatness, and remained in that allegiance down into his darkness; and others he corrupted afterwards to his service with lies and treacherous gifts. Dreadfull among these spirits were the Valaraukar, the scourges of fire that in Middle-earth were called the Balrogs, demons of terror."

I think that pretty much defines them as Maiar...

 

[Uminya]

I think the same thing that happened to Sauron and Saruman happens to Balrogs...they simply cease to be.

 

[Gothmog]

Ciryaher, what you say is true but Sauron returned after his body was destroyed and saruman suffered the judgment of the valar when his body died. I think that when the Maiar suffer defeat and the death of the body they created then they do lose some of their power, but why did the Balrogs not return at least once before ceasing to exist in ME? They were very powerful Maiar to start with or they would not have been such terrifying demons.

 

[Telchar]

I've thought about that before, and i've looked into it, but can't explane why there are differences between Sauron and the Balrog, except that Sauron wasnt a Balrog.. And he was probably more powerfull than the Balrogs since he was Morgoths liutanant..(IIRC)

 

[Gothmog]

True, but Gothmog was High Captain of Angband and so was probably not much weaker than Sauron.