Balrogs



Balrogs were Maiar spirits seduced by Morgoth, that took human-like form. Morgoth created three of them.

Balrogs briefly
A Balrog (Sindarin for "Demon of Might"; the Quenya form is Valarauko, Valarauco' or Valaraukar) was a tall, menacing being in the shape of a Man, having control of both fire and shadow and with a fiery whip of many thongs (Gothmog, the Lord of Balrogs in the First Age used an axe). They induced great terror in friends and foes alike and could shroud themselves in darkness and shadow. Gandalf defeated a Balrog while the Fellowship of the Ring escaped Moria in The Lord of the Rings (specifically, in Book II, the second half of The Fellowship of the Ring).

The Balrogs were originally Maiar (and therefore also Ainur), of the same order as Sauron and Gandalf, but they became seduced by Morgoth, who corrupted them to his service in the days of his splendour before the creation of Arda. During the First Age, they were among the most feared of Morgoth's forces. When his fortress of Utumno was destroyed by the Valar, they fled and lurked in the pits of Angband. In the third age the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm awakened a Balrog while mining for Mithril and were cast out.

The Balrogs were first encountered by the Elves during the Dagor-nuin-Giliath in the First Age. After the great victory of the Ñoldor over Morgoth's orcs, Fëanor pressed on towards Angband, but the Balrogs came against him. He was mortally wounded by Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs (the only Balrog known by his name). Though his sons fought off the demons, Fëanor died of his wounds soon after, and his spirit departed for the Halls of Mandos. The Balrogs were supposed to have been all destroyed at the end of the First Age. But it was later discovered that one had escaped and hidden in Moria, Durin's Bane, certainly the best-documented of the Balrogs. He was killed by Gandalf in the War of the Ring, the last of the Balrogs slain.

Appearance
Contrary to popular opinion (further forwarded by Peter Jackson's trilogy), Balrogs are not engulfed in flame. They are, in fact, characterised by darkness, and the fire connection is internal rather than external, although Durin's Bane, the Balrog that appears in Moria breathes fire from its nostrils. And Balrogs can also breath fire down upon their foes, as seen in The Battle for middle earth computer game. (As this fire is internal) They are of man shape, and very intelligent creatures (being Ainur, they took part in the creation of the world). Balrogs stood some three or four times the height of a man, and had a tail that extended back the same distance again. In the books, Tolkien depicts the Balrog as being barely a shape wreathed in shadow and flame. A man shape? No one knows. Tolkien may not have known either.

Do Balrogs have wings?
The "Do Balrogs have wings?" debate had reached legendary (and to outsiders often comical) proportions. The books are ambiguous on the matter, but the movies follow the interpretation that they did have "wings of shadow". Could they fly? Did they even need wings to fly?

Discussion has occurred as to whether the Balrogs had wings. Nothing has been decided conclusively, although the Balrog in the Peter Jackson film version of The Fellowship of the Ring, released in 2001, was clearly winged, albeit with 'wings of shadow', and certainly could not fly. That, however, proves nothing of the Balrogs Tolkien wrote about.

The debate mainly comes from The Bridge of Khazad-dûm, a chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring. There are two references in this chapter.

"His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings." The Lord of the Rings II 5 "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm"

There is nothing special in this on its own. The Balrog carried with itself a shadow that assumed a winglike form. The next reference is what forms the debate:

"...suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall..." The Lord of the Rings II 5 "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm"

Readers usually make their own interpretations about this and feel it to be quite obvious. However, this can be seen in two possible ways. For some, the Balrog has a shadow that assumes a winglike form. Later, this shadow is spread from wall to wall. Others, however, think that the Balrog has actual wings that are spread from wall to wall. There is no real conclusion to the debate and it will probably continue as long as Tolkien has readers.

Arguments for Balrog wings
The most common argument for those supporting Balrog wings is the second reference in The Bridge of Khazad-dûm. The people supporting Balrog wings believe the sentence to mean that the Balrog had literal wings spreading from wall to wall. There are also other references that may be taken as evidence of Balrog wings. These usually involve discussions about references to speed of travel:

"Swiftly they arose, and they passed with winged speed over Hithlum, and they came to Lammoth as a tempest of fire." The History of Middle-earth Volume X (Morgoth's Ring), The Later Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Rape of the Silmarils

Here, the Balrogs are said to arrive in "Lammoth as a tempest of fire". This is usually taken as a metaphor for flying, although Balrogs do not have to have wings to fly.

Arguments against Balrog wings
The first reference to the Balrog is one of the main arguments against wings, as it explicitly refers to "wings of shadow" instead of physical wings. However, "wings of shadow" are still wings in the same sense that anything wing-shaped is a wing.

Another common argument is that Balrogs are never exactly described as flying (implying that a winged Balrog MUST fly and that lack of mention of flight implies Balrogs cannot fly). These arguments have been countered as based on false logic but they still have their proponents.

Some arguments insist a Balrog could have either saved or helped itself by flying (such as when Gandalf smote the bridge and made the Balrog fall into the chasm) but didn't do so.

"Many are the songs that have been sung of the duel of Glorfindel with the Balrog upon a pinnacle of rock in that high place; and both fell to ruin in the abyss." Quenta Silmarillion 23 "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin"

"I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place, and broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin." The Lord of the Rings III 5 "The White Rider"

However, in The Hobbit, when Bard the Bowman slew Smaug the flying dragon, he fell from a great height and smote the Laketown in his ruin. The argument that the Balrog should have been able to save itself if it had wings capable of flight has been countered by the comparison with the death of Smaug. Ancalagon the Black, the father of flying dragons, also fell to his death "in ruin".

Some arguments attempt to distort the facts by drawing upon passages that Tolkien rejected or replaced. These arguments are disputed on the basis of being irrelevant to the published text in The Lord of the Rings (which is the source of the controversy).

However, in the film, Durin's Bane certainly has wings (which may have atrophied due to an extensive period of hibernation), as seen very clearly in the beginning of The Two Towers.

Miscellaneous
In one of Tolkien's pre-Middle-earth stories, Lay of the Children of Húrin, "Lungothrin, Lord of Balrogs" is mentioned. It is not, however, certain if it was another name for Gothmog, or it simply meant "a Balrog lord". According to Christopher Tolkien, the latter is more probable, as the name Gothmog was mentioned in the earliest Middle-earth writings, as well as the final version of Tolkien's mythology.

The Balrogs were originally envisioned as being immense in number:

"The early conception of Balrogs makes them less terrible, and certainly more destructible, than they afterwards became: they existed in 'hundreds' (p. 170), and were slain by Tuor and the Gondothlim in large numbers: "thus five fell before Tuor's great axe Dramborleg, three before Ecthelion's sword, and two score were slain by the warriors of the king's house." The Book of Lost Tales 2, commentary by Christopher Tolkien on The Fall of Gondolin.

"There came wolves and serpents and there came Balrogs one thousand, and there came Glomund the Father of Dragons." The Lost Road, Quenta Silmarillion chapter 16, §15.

When Tolkien developed Middle-earth as the backdrop for The Lord of the Rings, Balrogs became more formidable and terrible, this number was much reduced. In the end Tolkien stated that there were "at most" seven Balrogs:

"In the margin my father wrote: 'There should not be supposed more than say 3 or at most 7 ever existed.'" Morgoth's Ring, Section 2 (AAm*): note 50 (just before section 3).

The amount of Balrogs changed to at most 7 at the same time they 'became' Maiar in Tolkien's mind. So this note is the only applicable indication of Balrog numbers that Tolkien wrote.

The video games The Battle for Middle-earth, its sequel and The Third Age all show Balrogs with the ability to fly.

Trivia

 * Some fans of the Doom series claim that the Balrog of the movies looks similar to a cross between a D3 Cyberdemon and a D3 Maledict (Cyberdemon with Maledict Wings).