This week’s poll is surprisingly controversial and has created quite the debate across the internet, especially after being mentioned on Dr. Corey Olsen’s The Tolkien Professor podcast.
So, do balrogs have wings?
Loading ...Poll: Do Balrogs Have Wings?
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Polls
What Is The First Thing You Will Do When Mordor Is Released?
- Simply Walk Into ........ (43%, 63 Votes)
- The Epic Story! (38%, 55 Votes)
- Other (Leave Comment) (15%, 22 Votes)
- Side Quests (2%, 3 Votes)
- The Black Book Of Mordor (1%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 141
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No wings, curse you Peter Jackson!
In my opinion Tolkien was never specific enough as to this question to know for certain(yes, I know about the “it was a metaphor thing”). Thus, I subscribe to the Rule of Cool: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool.
Balrogs having wings are most definitely cooler thn Balrogs without wings. Therefore, Balrogs have wings. 🙂
Dragons were made to have an air force to be able to attack hidden locations in Middle-earth. If Balrogs had wings they would have found the hidden places long ago.
Maybe they had wings but were too heavy to fly. Like ostriches!
Indeed that is really the only counter-argument; a balrog ostrich of Morgoth
I agree! See my comment below.
If this is true, then I contend that elves had laser eyes. Tolkien never said they didn’t and laser eyes are much cooler. Of coarse I jest but you get my point.
When I see one, I’m going to assume it can fly & therefore be faster than me. I’m also not going to count how many heads & tails it has. I’m gonna run my hobbity legs off booging outta there.
This is a very good article that runs down the argument on both sides on the encyclopedia of Arda website. A rather lengthy one on Tom Bombadil as well.
At risk of life, limb, and lore, I snuck onto the Bridge of Khazad-Dum just as some wizard and scorched beast were having some kind of quarrel to prove to you that yes, balrogs can indeed have wings.
http://oi62.tinypic.com/2lk9mpj.jpg
No wings. Dr. Corey Olsen, The Tolkien Professor, has a very good discussion of this.
And yet the yes votes are winning! Help get the word out to Tolkien Professor listeners by tweeting to the show with @TolkienProf.
No wings. The text says “the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings.” The key word there is not wings but like. Tolkien is not saying the balrog had wings but making a comparison between the shadow of the balrog and wings so he can better describe what it looks like. If I say the clouds look like swans I do not mean that the clouds are swans.
I agree both that Dr. Corey Olsen does a great job on this point, and that Peter Jackson goofed up. This is why it is always better to go back to the source, and not the adaptation, to see what the text really says.
You can’t attribute this to Peter Jackson when almost every single interpretation of the Balrog has given them wings(even LOTRO).
Indeed they have, doesn’t mean they are correct 😀
I agree and I disagree. I am not saying I blame Peter Jackson but I think we can all agree that his movies have had a huge impact on the cultural imagination. This is both good and bad. It is good because his movies brought people to Tolkien who might otherwise have never picked up the books. There is an inherent danger in that however. Ask the average person on the street what a balrog is and if they know the answer at all chances are fairly good that they will point not to the books but the movies. That is a bit like me basing my thoughts on Ancient Rome on some Hollywood movie.
Now do not get me wrong I enjoy Hollywood movies, Gladiator was good and I very much enjoyed HBO’s Rome. But Hollywood is not known for its historical accuracy
So maybe the question should be qualified by stating wither you are asking about Tolkien’s original legendarium or other adaptations and interpretations of that original, because I think the two are different things entirely. Do balrogs have wings in many of those adaptations and interpretations? Of course they do and I’m okay with that. I loved that scene in the movie with Gandalf and the Balrog. Do balrogs have wings in the books Tolkien wrote? I would be inclined to say no. Again I think Dr. Corey Olsen makes some really good arguments as to why not. And I think that the way Tolkien wrote the passage seems to indicate that he did not see them as having wings.
At the end of the day I would be at all upset, angry, ticked off or whatever if in fact conclusive evidence was brought forward showing that Tolkien did think balrogs had wings. It is a fun thing to discus and debate though. When debating however, to end with my original point, we need to differentiate between Tolkien and adaptations/interpretations of Tolkien, and yes that included lotro much though I love the game..
I voted yes even after listening to TTP podcast. He is possibly right about wings v’s no wings but my imagination was the driving force of my vote and I think they look cooler with wings!
I too think Balrogs should have wings even though the argument against is strong.
Maybe Tolkien’s description was of a Balrog that had lost his wings in battle… a fallen balrog…Does that hypothesis fly? (About as well as an hippopotamus… probably!)
i imagine they have wings. In otherhand, did maiar really have need for wings?
Why doesn’t someone just ask Pineleaf? If he doesn’t know, tnan no one will.
lol! Indeed! I bet he has checked already. No strike that, he didn’t even have to check because he is Pineleaf 😀
I will answer this question with a question of my own: does it really matter?