The Truth About Balrogs
Who really cares about whether Balrogs have wings?
Apparently, lots of people. When fans were wondering if Peter Jackson's Balrog would have wings, Xenite.Org created the first online movie-specific poll. We asked if Peter's Balrog should have wings. Thousands of responses later, approximately 74 per cent of fans had indicated they wanted some sort of wings on the Balrog. But no clear majority approved of any kind of wing. Some even voted for "long and floppy, like a puppy dog's ears".
The Balrog Wings Debate continues after years of discussion, personal recriminations, and tortuous debate regarding the use of simile and metaphor.
"The arguments about simile and metaphor are unproductive," Michael points out. "English teachers and professors have jumped into the middle of these discussions and told people they don't understand the rules of simile and metaphor. They are promptly ignored. One of the key points in the anti-Wing arguments is that Tolkien uses the word 'like' when he first mentions the wings. It's okay to use a simile to introduce something that really is being compared to itself. Tolkien understood that. 26 per cent of his readers don't."
Is it THAT important to convince people that Balrogs do have wings?
"Not really," Michael admits. "There is a part of me which likes to play devil's advocate. I enjoy tweaking people's noses when they become intractible. There really isn't anything else you can do. But though I first joined the ongoing debate out of frustration with the poorly constructed arguments coming from both sides, there was a brief period where it proved challenging. That made it interesting to me."
Are the wings "real"?
"Did Tolkien write that Balrogs had physical wings?" Michael says. "No -- what he wrote was that they were creatures of flame and darkness, and that the darkness around the Balrog of Moria extended out from its body as members of the Fellowship watched. The darkness took the shape of wings that eventually stretched from wall to wall."
But the issue isn't always so clear. Michael concedes that Tolkien's early Balrogs were wingless. "And that just leads into another controversial area," he points out. "Too many people use the various texts interchangeably to support their vaious points of view, which is wrong. But the general readership probably doesn't care much one way or the other."
Michael has written two essays about Balrog wings. Do Balrogs Have Wings? Do Balrogs Fly attempted to set the record straight. However, some people have misrepresented the points in the essay in order to "debunk" it. A few years later Michael wrote "Flying Away On A Wing And A Hair", which he considers to be the final word on the truth about Balrogs. "Wayne Hammond and Cristina Scull misrepresented the Balrog wing argument in their book The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion", Michael says. "I felt pressured to write some sort of response, showing the incompleteness of their entry. It probably makes no difference for anyone. I have lost all interest in the Balrog Wings Debate. People can believe whatever they want to believe. The propagandists will continue to spread their messages on both sides of the issue."
