Do Balrogs Have Wings?

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Asking a question like, Do balrogs have wings?, is one way to recapture the feel of medieval theological disputation:

However much fan art depicts it, for the true Lord of the Rings fanboy, there’s only one definitive source: the book itself. What does Fellowship have to say for itself?

Exhibit D:

‘His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings.’

The Fellowship of the Ring II 5 The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

Exhibit E:

‘…suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall…’

The Fellowship of the Ring II 5 The Bridge of Khazad-dûm


The relevant Encyclopedia of Arda article continues:
These are quite probably the most hotly debated words Tolkien ever wrote. This seems strange at first, because in fact most people agree that the meaning isn’t particularly ambiguous, and that it’s fairly obvious what the statement means. The dispute begins, though, with a curious fact: like an optical illusion, this quotation has two obvious interpretations. Whatever you think it means, and however sure you are, there are plenty of people who see it quite differently.

The two interpretations:

To one group of readers, ‘its wings were spread from wall to wall’ (2) relates to the immediately preceding ‘the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings’ (1). To them, it just reinforces the preceding statement, and says nothing about any other kind of wings. On the opposite side of the debate, ‘its wings were spread’ (2) is not related to the preceding statement at all. Instead, it’s a definite reference to the Balrog’s real, physical wings.

This is the heart of the debate. As Obi Wan was fond of saying, Luke, you’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.

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