Season 1 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power promised a balrog, and while King Durin’s tragic sacrifice in the mithril-rich depths beneath Khazad-dûm may have been short-lived, it was certainly spectacular. But there is one thing it didn’t do, and that is give Rings of power‘s answer to a simple question: Can balrogs fly?
At this point you might be wondering if I’m joking. By course balrogs can fly; they have wings. They have always had wings. The one in the Peter Jackson movies has wings. But what if I told you that when Peter Jackson and crew chose to depict the balrog with wings, they were making a somewhat controversial choice?
What if I told you that the question of whether balrogs have wings at all has troubled Tolkien scholars for decades?
The source of the problem is that all the language Tolkien used to refer to the ‘wings’ of balrogs and their ‘flight’ is open to interpretation.
The first description of a balrog’s shape comes in the Moria series of The Company of the Ring. And the first reference to it having ‘wings’ comes after several paragraphs describing it simply as a huge, maned figure in the shape of a man, with a sword in one hand and a whip in the other, darkened in fire, shadow and smoke. . And in this first mention, Tolkien explicitly does not say that the balrog has wings. He says the darkness surrounding it looks like wings: ‘the shadow around it stretched out like two enormous wings’, while the balrog stands directly opposite Gandalf on the bridge of Khazad-dûm.
The next reference, two paragraphs later, describes how the balrog’s fire died out and the shadow around it increased, until “suddenly it drew itself up to a great height and spread its wings from wall to wall.” In itself, this language is more literal. But based on the first reference, it can be argued that Tolkien is simply referring elegantly to the previous comparison, without intending a literal meaning – which is a commonly observed pattern in the descriptive writing of his novel work.
A few paragraphs later, the bridge collapses under Gandalf’s staff and the balrog falls into the abyss. Tolkien writes, “his shadow fell down and disappeared.” That raises other good arguments for flightless balrogs: If the balrog could fly, why couldn’t it fly out of the canyon? Why would Gandalf have even tried to put the bridge under his feet if he knew it could fly?
And not to get too deep into the textual analysis, but suffice it to say that every time Tolkien referred to balrogs in The Silmarillion When he ‘flies with winged speed’ or ‘passes over’ a great distance, there is a counterexample in which he uses ‘flight’ to mean ‘escape’ or refers to entire land-based armies as ‘passing over’ a country. And there are many references in Tolkien’s early writings, including balrogs, to balrogs being part of ground-based armies, to the forces of evil that do not include flying monsters that rival the Great Eagles, etc.
But on the other hand, The Silmarillion was published posthumously, compiled from Tolkien’s most complete writings, not necessarily his most current. And this way we can go around in circles for hours.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powera show that seems to want to visually align itself with the Peter Jackson films, features a balrog similar to the one in Jackson’s Moria, complete with curved horns, a skull-like face and large winged appendages covered in cascading smoke. But can it fly? The show hasn’t yet clearly established a foothold in that arena: we don’t see him fly in his brief appearance, but we do see him fall and flap his wings in a failed attempt to rise into the air or in a successful attempt to take to the air. trying to control his descent. So it is also open to interpretation, at least for the time being.
People will debate whether balrogs have wings and can fly until humanity is a fairy tale books written by rabbitsbecause there are compelling textual arguments for both sides and the “real” answer will never be known. The question is “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” from Tolkien studies/fandom, the “Are you saying the gif or jif?” It’s a question that’s fun to think about, as long as you take it with the weight of a Buddhist koan, and not the largest thread in the history of forumslocked by a moderator after 12,239 pages of heated debate.
The most overt truth is that Tolkien wrote many descriptions of balrogs that could be interpreted because he gave them wings and the ability to fly, but he never did either expressly stated that they have wings and can fly, not in material he himself has seen until publication. Both parties are potentially right and potentially wrong in equal measure.
You can even hold both ideas at the same time, like this: “Yes, the textual support is limited in some ways, but in all seriousness the wings look cool, and it’s all made-up fantastic mythopoeia opera anyway, so why not?” ? The balrog inside The Company of the Ring He’s also not described as having horns, and they look great. Perhaps the gorge under the bridge of Khazad-dûm was too narrow for the balrog’s wings to work?
Anyway, that’s my take on it. Now let’s take a sip of this delicious water and look at the comments section…