Welcome to The Tolkien Forum! Connect with fellow Tolkien enthusiasts and join a community that is over two decades old, and still going strong. We look forward to meeting you.
Register
Perhaps this will help. What do you think the "wings" were made of?
My opinion is that Balrogs were cloaked in darkness (see Morgoth's Ring), and during the Moria confrontation this darkness/shadow reached out _like wings_ ~ the shadow of a bird can have "wings" too, though the winged shadow of a bird is a cast shadow, while the Balrog has an 'unlight' about it that momentarilly reached out (ie not flesh-type permanent wings like a bat or bird or similar).
Last posted by Pontifex It is just MHO, however, that the Balrog's wings were composed solely of ethereal and fiery essense, instead of muscles, tendons and bone.
The book (author of the) uses the word 'wings' very many times, and of course, does not always mean physical bird-wings (or similar).
Shadow-shapes that look or act like wings are indeed wings, and 'wings' need be nothing more (but they will yet be shadow, and not necessarilly permanent).
I don't think balrogs had wings and the evidence also points to that. I think his shadow had wings, though, because his shadow was like a spirit of its own... but then again, he was a Maia so he could have wings at one time and then not have them anymore.
Balrogs do have wings, it is clearly mentioned in LotR book.
You'll probably ask me ''then why didn't it fly out in Moria?". So what, ostriches and penguins also have wings, but you don't really expect them to fly, do you?
But that's not the point against wings. If he had wings materially, he couldnt've fit through the door to the bridge hall or Khazad-Dum, so he was obviously only about the size of a man, as stated in one of the other Tolkien works (i forget which). So, don't be so sure...
Well the word 'wings' is clearly used in a description, but I don't think that's the same thing as the Balrog unquestionably having bat wings (or something ).
The word wings does not have to mean permanent physical appendages (like those of a bat or bird or similar) when it appears in a description, and indeed does not in various Tolkien examples.