In the Lord of the Rings fandom there’s a persistent debate whether balrogs, or Durin’s Bane specifically, have wings. The text in Fellowship is ambiguous whether what it is describing are literal wings or something else wing-like.

  • hakase@lemmy.zip
    72·
    5 days ago

    In that same passage we also get that “Gandalf flew down the stairs”. Literal, unambiguous evidence that Gandalfs have wings.

    • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
      7·
      5 days ago
      1. Fly also means to rush, so while ambiguous since we never see Gandalf fly we can assume it means he rushed down the stairs.
      2. Gandalf probably can fly, that doesn’t mean he needs wings.
      3. Gandalf is also a Maiar, he can have wings if he so desires.
      • hakase@lemmy.zip
        7·
        5 days ago

        Balrogs adopt some physical form, which they can change at will

        From Tolkien’s essay Ósanwë-kenta, included in Vinyar Tengwar #39:

        Melkor alone of the Great became at last bound to a bodily form; but that was because of the use that he made of this in his purpose to become Lord of the Incarnate, and of the great evils that he did in the visible body. Also he had dissipated his native powers in the control of his agents and servants, so that he became in the end, in himself and without their support, a weakened thing, consumed by hate and unable to restore himself from the state into which he had fallen. Even his visible form he could no longer master, so that its hideousness could not any longer be masked, and it showed forth the evil of his mind. So it was also with even some of his greatest servants, as in these later days we see: they became wedded to the forms of their evil deeds, and if these bodies were taken from them or destroyed, they were nullified, until they had rebuilt a semblance of their former habitations, with which they could continue the evil courses in which they had become fixed".

        Never in the legendarium do we see a balrog change its form, and this is probably why - they weren’t able to, and like their master, were trapped in their form of power and malice.

        We also know that in early drafts of the legendarium, “Melko” specifically kidnapped eagles to experiment on because he was unable to replicate flight. That’s part of why the flying wyrms were so surprising and devastating when he finally unleashed them, but balrogs were created long before, and we can easily conclude that, therefore, they were not created with wings.

        (Also, if Gandalf could fly, he wouldn’t have needed Gwaihir to rescue him from the pinnacle of Orthanc. Tolkien’s legendarium isn’t Dragon Ball Z.)

        • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
          1·
          4 days ago

          First of all having wings does not mean being able to fly. If Melkor experimented with several things it’s possible he made winged Balrogs who lacked the ability to fly.

          Secondly Balrogs are Maiar, Maiar don’t have physical form, they are shape shifters by their very nature. Sure, some lost that ability at some point and became stuck in their form like Morgoth, but at some point they had that ability (otherwise they wouldn’t have any physical form at all). Plus, not all evil Maiar lost the ability, Sauron remained able to do so until he lost his physical body.

          Gandalf, like other Maiar in middle earth, is limited in what they’re allowed to do due to their mission. But you should not forget he IS a Maiar, he existed before the physical plane and is not bound by it. He takes the form of an old man to help fight Sauron, and tries to not interfere because it’s important that people save themselves, but he could have come in the form of a towering angelical being with working wings, it just wasn’t what he wanted to represent.