Did the balrog have wings the debate?

[Niluial]

So did they? Do you think they did have wings or not? Please give a reason for your answer and each post should be more than 6 lines!

~Nilly

[Alatáriel]

I have already dicussed this with a few others before, and while reading that section of The Fellowship of the Rings, I found some valuable quotes that were of some interest to me and I decided to go seek the ideas of others. In doing so, I created a thread on my, and Elvish Hobbit's (also Leowen, yeah, I know...), forum which you can find here, amari.proboards21.com/index.cgi?board=Books&action=display&thread=1065228692

If you do not wish to click there and read it, here it is also:

*ahem* Yes some people said the Balrog shouldn't have wings because it could have just flown out instead of falling.... but while reading this section with the Balrog I have found some interesting quotes on the Balrog. I will say that the book does not say directly if it does or not, but it says:

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



This quote states that the shadow looks like wings, but in saying that gives the idea it does not have wings or else he could have worded it somewhat like this:

His enemy halted, facing him, and his wings reached out as a vast shadow

or something of that sort.

A few paragraphs later Tolkien writes:

Quote:It stepped forward slowly on to the bridge, and suddenly drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall; but still Gandalf could be seen, glimmering in the gloom...



This statement could probably be misleading, but I believe that Tolkien was referring to the shadow, and that the Balrog didnt have wings. He was probably referring to how there were massive shadows that extended from wall to wall. I think there is a grammatical term for something like that, but Im not the one that memorizes things like that...

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So I myself, have come to the conclusion that the Balrog does not have wings, although some peoples begged to differ...

The way the quotes were put is seemed to lean more towards the side that the Balrog does nto have wings....

Yep, Im done... dont ya think I beat the 6 line thing?

[Alatáriel]

Sorry if this isn't more than six lines, but I think this would fit better in formal debates...