That always lingering question...

[Borrarz]

... did balrog's have wings? Here's the passege from The Fellowship of the Ring:

The Balrog reached the bridge. Gandalf stood in the middle of the span, leaning on the staff in his left hand, but in his other hand Glamdring gleamed, cold and white. His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings. It raised the whip, and the thongs whined and cracked. Fire from its nostrils. But Gandalf stood firm...

... The Balrog made no answer. The fire in it seemed to die, but the darkness grew. It stepped forward slowly on to the bridge, and suddenly it drew itself up to a great hieght, and its wings were spread from wall to wall; but still Gandalf could be seen, glimmering in the gloom... ~ The Bridge of Khazad- Dum ~

Now based on these refrences and some prior knowledge I have concluded that Balrog's infact do NOT have wings. Simply because it says the shadow reached out like two vast wings, and that would be a simile, a direct comparison, using like or as. Also the prior knowledge is that, we don't know exactly how many Balrog's there were, BUT from my memory atleast 2 of the Balrog's died from falling. One at the Bridge of Khazad-Dum, and the other in Gondolin. Now if they had wings, why didn't they just fly up and save themselves?

Please inteligent answers!!!

[Viviane]

maybe they didnt realize that they had wings.......some creatures dont......or maybe the wings were to fragile to use or they couldnt support the balrog.......the wings couldve just evolved recently.....they say humans scapula may be evovling into wings......cool......well those are my theories

[skittles]

i had been under the impression that even with their wings they couldn't fly, like a penguin.
anyways, i'm glad it had wings in the movie, cuz that made it look even more cool.

[Dragon]

If it had wings it would have flown.

[Tinuviel]

That is true. I read somewhere that Balrog's did not have wings. I'm not sure which book I read it in though....

[Calenfalathiel]

hmmmm...i dunno maybe Tolkien was trying to use a metaphor or something....or they could just be like penguins, having wings but not be able to fly

[Fingolfin]

Calenfalathiel said:

or they could just be like penguins, having wings but not be able to fly

While that is possible, I don't think it probable. Considering that the balrogs are Maiar, and are therefore non-evolutionary creatures, there would seem to be no need for vestigial wing remnants.

[.:Luthien:.]

That''s true....I also like that there were wings in the movies because it did make it look cooler

[Idril Celebrindal]

I agree with Fingolfin.
And because there are arguments for both sides of this matter in the books, it isn't impossible that balrogs had wings they couldn't use, it just seems very unlikely...
;D

[psychoknight]

I always thought they had incoporeal wings, in the movie they look like they are little more than smoke.
Perhaps it was a metaphor that they didn't know how to realise without taking it literally. The result: wings of smoke.
And even if they were physical, the Balrog looked way to heavy to fly on them.

[Calenfalathiel]

hmmm....you make a point there, I didn't think of that...that could be possible

[psychoknight]

As I remember, the cartoon version had actual leathery wings, so that's even worse.

[Idril Celebrindal]

Eww...

[psychoknight]

What's ew?

[Idril Celebrindal]

it's like... umm... not positive... I don't have a wod for it in English... everything I think of is Norwegian:P Someone else should explain...