Did Balrogs have wings?
[Conrad Dunkerson has written a much more detailed essay on this question as part of his “The Truth About Balrogs” series, on the web at: http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/TAB6.html. That page also includes links to other discussions of the issue.] Debates on this topic have been frequent and intense, in part because people unknowingly interpret the question in very different ways. Most participants in these debates agree on the following: * The Balrog in Moria had “wings” of some sort, or if you prefer, a “shadow” shaped like wings. * Those “wings” were probably not made of flesh and blood, but rather of some sort of “dark emanation” or “palpable darkness”. Many of the most intense arguments seem to have resulted from different uses of the word “wing”. In this consensus statement, the (quoted) word “wing” is used only as a convenient symbol for the feature of the Balrog under discussion, without reference to any standard definition. In particular, the statement does not specify whether
[Conrad Dunkerson has written a much more detailed essay on this question as part of his “The Truth About Balrogs” series, on the web at: http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/TAB6.html. That page also includes links to other discussions of the issue.] Debates on this topic have been frequent and intense, in part because people unknowingly interpret the question in very different ways.
