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crisaor · 11-27-2002, 04:10 PM

Well, i could admit that maybe the balrog hungered for Gandalf´s power and wanted to take it for his own, you may be right about that JPEggs, but that doesn´t have anything to do with my question.

Regarding the wings only for gliding, i thought about that (since it´s perhaps the most plausible explanation) but it doesn´t make sense either. The draconians were much smaller than the Balrog, and in a manner of speaking, they were "lesser creatures" compared to the balrog, since they were created by Takhisis from metallic dragons´s eggs and the balrogs were a symbol of evil from the dawn of time (or the first age, i don´t remember excatly how Tolkien refers to that period in the Silmarillion), so their levels of power (including those depending on physical form) aren´t alike in my opinion. Also, from what i recall, Tolkien said that the wings of the demon were so huge that they spread across the entire cavern (which was fairly big), so I assume that they were big enough to hold the demon in the air if it wanted to. Maybe it does takes a while to get its wings going, but it sounds somewhat cheesy to justify the fall with that, and the book says nothing about this. Unluckily, i don`t think the second movie will show the scene of Gandalf and the Balrog falling, but that`s just a hunch. Maybe Tolkien thought of the Balrog as a demon with wings purely for esthetic taste, and then forgot about it, but this is nothing but speculation, and it´s unlikely we ever know it for sure.

Thank you both for the ideas.

11-27-2002, 04:10 PM	#4
crisaor L'artiste est morte Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Stuck inside a cloud Posts: 1,417	Well, i could admit that maybe the balrog hungered for Gandalf´s power and wanted to take it for his own, you may be right about that JPEggs, but that doesn´t have anything to do with my question. Regarding the wings only for gliding, i thought about that (since it´s perhaps the most plausible explanation) but it doesn´t make sense either. The draconians were much smaller than the Balrog, and in a manner of speaking, they were "lesser creatures" compared to the balrog, since they were created by Takhisis from metallic dragons´s eggs and the balrogs were a symbol of evil from the dawn of time (or the first age, i don´t remember excatly how Tolkien refers to that period in the Silmarillion), so their levels of power (including those depending on physical form) aren´t alike in my opinion. Also, from what i recall, Tolkien said that the wings of the demon were so huge that they spread across the entire cavern (which was fairly big), so I assume that they were big enough to hold the demon in the air if it wanted to. Maybe it does takes a while to get its wings going, but it sounds somewhat cheesy to justify the fall with that, and the book says nothing about this. Unluckily, i don`t think the second movie will show the scene of Gandalf and the Balrog falling, but that`s just a hunch. Maybe Tolkien thought of the Balrog as a demon with wings purely for esthetic taste, and then forgot about it, but this is nothing but speculation, and it´s unlikely we ever know it for sure. Thank you both for the ideas.