| Re: Balrogs and Wings.
I've been thinking about it, and it occurs to me that the argument that Balrogs can't fly doesn't necessarily hold.
Even with wings, in order to fly you have to have room to spread them out. If the chasm in Moria is smaller than the Balrog's wingspan, not only would that prevent Durin's Bane from beating its wings (or gliding), but any attempt to do so would result in a broken wing -- not much use for flying either.
The same thing if someone fighting with a Balrog throws or pushes the creature down the side of a mountain -- rolling and tumbling down the slope the wings become more of a liability than a help, and again there is a very good chance that the wings will break. Nowhere does it say that Gandalf pushed the Balrog off of a sheer drop from the highest peak and watched it fall straight down. Here is what it does say: "I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place, and broke the mountainside where he smote it in his ruin." To me, this conjures up the picture of a bruising tumble over the rocks. |