#tolkien #middleearth #lordoftherings
Q: Why Did the Balrog Fall If It Had Wings?
ANSWER: Like dead and dying dragons, dead and dying balrogs don’t fly. However, this is a trick question that is still making its rounds on the Web. It invokes a false logic argument, implying that the Balrog of Moria would have flown away from Gandalf if it had had wings.
The false logic argument fails on several points, including:
- Although Gandalf says the balrog burst into flame again when it emerged on the peak above Khazad-dûm, he doesn’t say that the Balrog had re-assumed the shape/form it used when it first appeared to the Fellowship in Khazad-dûm (that is, Gandalf doesn’t mention any wings);
- Gandalf said he cast his enemy down, which is Tolkien-speak for “I slew my enemy [the balrog]”. So when he fell and crashed on the peak, Fred the Balrog was incapable of doing anything else, either because he was already dead or in the process of dying (just as the dead/dying Smaug and Ancalagon were unable to save themselves by flying away from their final resting places);
- Although Tolkien describes Balrogs flying over Hithlum to help Morgoth, he never says those flaming balrogs (who “arrived as a tempest of fire”) assumed forms with wings;
- Being Maiar (angelic beings) the balrogs were capable of moving through the air in any form they desired (with or without wings); the Ainur had shaped the universe and didn’t need an atmosphere to “fly”;
- The “wings” referred to earlier in the LoTR text were merely the darkness (aka “the shadow”) with which the Balrog surrounded itself taking on a great, terrifying shape; there is no suggestion in the text that the wings were physical in any way or required for any of the balrog’s actions (other than its attempt to intimidate the members of the Fellowship)
We know the Balrog of Moria was capable of changing its form. When it approached the bridge of Khazad-dûm it was a “dark figure streaming with fire”. But Gandalf says that after they hit the water at the bottom of the chasm, it became “a thing of slime”. Last time I checked, neither flame nor “shadow” (darkness) are described by Tolkien as slimy in any text.
People sometimes ask how Gandalf survived the long fall to the water. Well, he was also a Maia – but the balrog was in control of their descent, apparently, as it dragged Gandalf down. He says he was burned by its flames as he swung his sword at it. So regardless of what that fiery/shadowy body was made of, it was perfectly capable of descending a long distance at a speed that didn’t result in either its death or Gandalf’s (and they both died as a result of their battle on the peak, so clearly you can’t say either the balrog or Gandalf was impervious to physical harm). And despite Gandalf striking it with his sword, it wasn’t mortally wounded during their descent.
By omitting or rephrasing these and other details, people who promote the myth that balrogs can’t fly (and that they “don’t have wings”) construct a false but convincing logical trap for anyone who is curious about what happened in Moria.
What we know for sure is that Gandalf confronted a being of great power not once but several times: first, when he used a Word of Command to bring down part of the mountain on the balrog (and that didn’t kill it – but only seemed to anger it); second, when Gandalf broke the bridge and the balrog used its flaming whip to latch on to him and drag him down; and finally after they emerged from the water at the bottom of the chasm and the balrog fled (with Gandalf chasing it) to the peak where they engaged in their final confrontation.
After Gandalf struck the balrog a deadly blow, it was finished. It didn’t change shape again. It didn’t strike back. It didn’t scream out. It simply fell – as any dead or dying balrog (or dragon) would be expected to do according to J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary precedents.
Any Argument That Ignores or Alters the Facts Is Wrong
If you have to “explain away” any of the above details (or others) in order to show that balrogs cannot “fly” or must have physical wings when stretching some kind of dark emanation across a large cavern, you’ve already lost the argument.
J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t anticipate all these fannish arguments or the ridiculous extremes to which people would go in order to “prove” some nonsensical assertion about balrogs.
If you don’t want to believe balrogs are capable of using their native Ainuric powers to dig themselves out from under collapsed caves and tunnels, or to float down a deep chasm, or to fly into the sky like “a tempest of fire”, you don’t have to. The stories are there for everyone to read them (and picture balrogs in their own imaginations as they wish).
See also
How Long Did Gandalf And The Balrog Fall? (on the Middle-earth Blog)
What Is the Hithlum Passage, And Why Is It Important? (on the Middle-earth Blog)
Why Do You Say That Balrogs Evolved? (on the Middle-earth blog)
Flying Away On A Wing And A Hair (on www.xenite.org)
Balrog Wings (on www.xenite.org)
The Truth about Balrogs (Again) (on Tolkien Studies on the Web)
The Balrogs Are Coming! The Balrogs Are Coming! (on Tolkien Studies on the Web)
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Michael,
Obviously you have answered this question a hundred times and are finished messing around with it. Bravo!
Hey Michael. You have once again answered the Balrog question quite well. Tolkien fandom need not ask again…PLEASE! Are these people also questioning why the Fellowship didn’t actually take wing out of Moria when Gandalf urged them to “Fly! You Fools!”
By the by, I just read it that the Balrogs were moving really fast when the flew over Hithlum. You know they hit the ground running out of Angband. Never once did I think they were actually in the air. Just sayin’.
I’m not going to dwell on Hithlum here. People can follow my links and read what I’ve written and decide for themselves. I’m more concerned about trick questions that try to frame things in a clearly biased way. The “wings” in Moria were (as far as I am concerned) just a momentary attempt to look scary, and the trick would not have worked on Gandalf after an 11-day battle.
I’m a little bemused (well, a lot bemused) that anybody thinks it’s worth arguing in such detail about an imaginary episode in an imagined adventure. Perhaps they need to be reminded that LOTR is a brilliant work of fiction, and that Tolkien put in the Balrog episode as a way of taking Gandalf out of the story for a while. He glossed over some details in the process. A science fiction writer would probably have paid more attention to the physics of the descent, but Tolkien didn’t.
If I wanted to quibble about any of it, I would ask why Fred “fled” from Gandalf once they both reached the bottom of the abyss. If he had the power to fight Gandalf, he could have made a stand (using the term loosely, as there is no mention of feet) and fought him underground, Maia to Maia. Unless he needed time to dry out so he could flame on again, which, of course, raises the question of how ordinary water could have extinguished his other worldly flame in the first place.
Of course, an in-universe explanation may be that Gandalf’s memory of events was still scrambled after his resurrection and his account to Aragorn and the others omitted details. Legolas, who presumably knew most about Balrogs from Elvish lore, should perhaps have questioned Gandalf more closely, but not being one of the Wise he didn’t think to do so.
I don’t really care about the wings one way or another. But I’m a little surprised to hear that you think Balrogs could freely move through the air. In both the encounter with Gandalf on the Bridge of Khazad-dum and the encounter with Glorfindel in Cirith Thoronath, it seems that the Balrogs moved quickly downwards in an involuntary manner (i.e., they fell). In fact, Tolkien uses the word “fell” to describe both events.
“With a terrible cry the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow plunged down and vanished.” (LotR)
“…both fell to ruin in the abyss.” (The Simarillion)
The Balrog in Moria apparently had no desire to move downwards, and the Balrog in Cirith Thoronath was killed by the fall. If they were capable of moving through the air, it seems like they would have chosen to do so. Unless I’m missing something?
They’re both Maiar. Where could the Balrog of Moria go that Gandalf couldn’t inevitably follow? I think it had to stay and finish the battle because Gandalf was determined to finish it.
As for the Silmarillion story, that is based on a pre-LoTR text where the Balrogs were very different (much weaker) than the demonic fallen Maia of Moria. There’s no basis for comparison there.
My understanding is that the combat began with the Balrog pursuing Gandalf. It didn’t try to flee until after they had tried to reach the bottom of the abyss. Gandalf says that they fought for a while (“Ever he clutched me, and ever I hewed him”) until the Balrog turned and fled. I guess maybe the battle wasn’t going its way? Gandalf then pursued the Balrog because he thought it would be his only hope of reaching the surface. Once it reached Durin’s Tower, the Balrog burst into new flame, perhaps because “the sun shone fiercely there,” and that’s when it was willing to turn and fight again.
I guess my point is that Gandalf would have been happy to leave the Balrog in Moria and proceed with the Quest. It’s the Balrog that wanted to fight. If it was it goal to drag Gandalf into the abyss, it could have done that before the Bridge broke. To me, that suggests that it would have preferred to continue the fight in Moria, but it didn’t have a choice. But that’s just my interpretation. 🙂
That should be “until after they had reached the bottom of the abyss”
Why should Gandalf have been happy to leave the Balrog there, however? It was still a threat to the Ringbearer as long as it lived. We’re both second-guessing the author here because (so far as I know) Tolkien didn’t discuss these points with anyone (or in his notes). All we have is the battle as Gandalf described it – he himself made no attempt to flee, and neither of them survived the encounter.
In any event, my point about the question people pose (why didn’t the Balrog fly away “if it had wings”) implies that the Balrog had to have physical wings “to fly” and that its death proves there were no wings (because it didn’t fly). By that logic, however, neither Smaug nor Ancalagon would have been capable of flight (and might not have had wings) because they both fell in their ruin. The question distorts the facts of Tolkien’s stories in order to appear to be clever.
I heartily agree with that last point. In Tolkien’s world, many creatures without wings can fly, and I assume many creatures with wings can’t fly. I’m suddenly reminded of WKRP’s Turkey Drop. 🙂
I almost didn’t write this article, but the question was kind of thrown at me last week. Meanwhile, the next article (scheduled for Thursday) takes on another big fan controversy. Can’t wait to see how people respond to that one.
It seems quite a leap to say Balrogs can shape change. I had thought they were always beings of fire and Fred becoming a thing of slime was because his flame had been extinguished and that was what he was like “underneath” his flam. Meanwhile, if they could shape change they could could create wings. 😉
Again going “in universe”, such info as we have from Silmarillion is that the Balrogs were originally Maiar in thrall to Morgoth. Like Morgoth, they took on other forms when they left the Ainur world and entered Middle-Earth. That implies a shape changing ability maybe similar to Sauron’s. Being originally spirits of no fixed form or texture, their wills could presumably create a variety of different forms of flesh or whatever other material was required. To bring in another imaginary universe from science fiction, Doc Smith’s Eddorians could take on almost any shape, hard, soft or in between, through the power of thought. Although it does seem that any given Maia gradually lost the power to change as time went on.
Something else occurred to me and I’ll put it in the mix for what it’s worth. Michael has often commented on the way Tolkien’s language shifts between the concrete and the metaphorical. At several points in LOTR there are references to the winged Nazgul, but it’s made quite clear that the wings are those of the pterosaur-like beasts on which the Nazgûl ride. By contrast, Tolkien left much about the Balrog unexplained, including whether or not the wing-like shadows were actual wings, and the composition of its body. That was his prerogative as sub creator, to leave some things mysterious.
Yes, and the descriptions of the Balrog are transitional (starting with the “thing” Gandalf saw when looking out of the door of the Chamber of Mazarbul). However, the question this article is about presupposes that the Balrog “pro-wings” view (so-to-speak) advocates for physical, flapping, flight-enabling wings. Now, while some people may feel that is what Tolkien described, I don’t. The book says it was the great shadowy darkness with which the Balrog surrounded itself that “reached out like two vast wings” and it was those shadowy extensions that “extended from wall to wall”. It was simply an act of intimidation.
Now, I suppose if a Balrog were to leap up into the sky it could extend that darkness out and flap its shadowy “wings”, but being of the Ainur it wouldn’t need wings to fly. Gandalf needed to ride on Great Eagles because he was forbidden to reveal himself in a form of power and majesty – not because he lacked the ability to fly. And when Gwaihir rescued him after he returned to life, Gwaihir said if he dropped Gandalf that he (Gwaihir) believed Gandalf wouldn’t fall. Gandalf of course reacted in fear but Tolkien provides enough details for us to see that Gandalf was no mere mortal, and that the Balrog wasn’t in a bird- or dragon-like body.
Merely falling a great distance didn’t kill either of them. Nor did dropping a huge load of mountain on the Balrog kill it. Didn’t even seem to faze it. So when it fell from the peak, it was either dead or dying. Any powers of flight it might have possessed were useless at that point. So the fact it crashed into the mountainside isn’t proof that it couldn’t fly or didn’t have wings. It’s just proof that Gandalf had slain it.
I would also add that Tolkien sometimes describes things (especially magical creatures) not as they are, but as they are subjectively perceived. For example, when the hill trolls attacked the men of Gondor at the Black Gate, they were described as “clad only in close-fitting mesh of horny scales, or maybe that was their hideous hide” (LR V.10). Since the story was being told from Pippin’s point of the view, presumably he wasn’t sure exactly what the trolls were wearing, if anything. Similarly, Frodo might have perceived something like wings on the Balrog, but he couldn’t be sure exactly. If the encounter with the Balrog had been told from, say, Aragorn’s point of view, Tolkien might have described it very differently.
“Similarly, Frodo might have perceived something like wings on the Balrog, but he couldn’t be sure exactly. If the encounter with the Balrog had been told from, say, Aragorn’s point of view, Tolkien might have described it very differently.”
I like that. Very good point. Well said. Wish someone had said it decades ago in a very visible venue. Might have saved us all some grief.
cheers!
Yes, good point. Tolkien said that he wished to tell as much of the story as he could from the point of view of the hobbits, who were pretty much innocents abroad, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t be able to explain things beyond their experience. .
One more question about Balrogs arises at a bit of a tangent. They were Melkor’s creatures, so presumably of lesser power than Melkor. So what are we to make of the account In Silmarillion, that Ungoliant was more scared of the Balrogs than she was of Melkor, whom she had nearly strangled (well, maybe not quite the right term, but close as I can think of right now) before they arrived? Especially as these were the First Age Balrogs who seemed to lack Fred’s muscle?
The whole episode with Ungoliant is icky. But I suppose Morgoth could have surrendered so much of his own strength by that point that he became weaker than a Balrog. LoTR implies Fred is no different from the Balrogs of the First Age. But Christopher Tolkien had to merge several texts together, so he was quite conservative with his Balrog descriptions.
I think, though, we must also take into account the number of Balrogs versus Ungoliant. And maybe she didn’t realize just how powerful she had become. Or maybe spinning her webs and spewing her darkness weakened her.
I think this is another of those areas where Tolkien felt vagueness served to make the story more interesting than trying to explain all the details. But maybe he just couldn’t come up with a rational, satisfying explanation.