Balrogs are imaginary demonic creatures depicted by J.R.R. in several stories, including The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Tolkien originally invented creatures he called "balrogs" for an early myth cycle he tried to compose for England while he was serving in the English army. This mythology for England, The Book of Lost Tales, represented ancient, pre-Anglo-Saxon Britain as the home for fairy races and fantastic creatures.
The Balrogs in the mythology for England were a large army of shock troops, hideous creatures who rode into battle on the backs of metal dragons. Although seeming to be of great strength, they were simply monsters, and not demons in the sense of fallen angels.
Even after Tolkien abandoned work on his mythology for England, he incorporate the idea of creatures called Balrogs in his next mythology, the Silmarillion. This mythology was set in an imaginary ancient northern world. The Balrogs were still servants of evil but they were not demons or fallen angels.
Tolkien changed the nature of Balrogs around 1942, when he was working on The Lord of the Rings. He needed an encounter where one of his heroes, the wizard Gandalf, would be removed from the primary narrative. Tolkien experimented with a couple of possible monsters and finally settled upon a Balrog. But after writing the chapter with a "traditional" Balrog from the older mythologies, he made a radical change in the Balrog's nature. He transformed it into a being of immense power and terror. About the same time, Tolkien concluded that such creatures could not number in the hundreds or thousands as his earlier mythologies has supposed. Instead, he decided there would have been at most only 7 of them.
By the year 1948, Tolkien had also decided that the Balrogs were so powerful they could only be demons, true fallen angels who had become evil in the world's distant past. As fallen angels the Balrogs had, like the mysterious wizards and Valar also mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, helped shape the universe in its primeval state. They had the power to transform themselves into terrible shapes, and they could endure tremendous tribulation and suffering. In fact, in the story, Gandalf the Wizard collapses a small underground chamber, burying the Balrog underneath tons of rock, and the Balrog survives.
The passage where the Balrog is fully described is disputed by many readers, some of whom believe that the text which speaks of "wings" must be metaphorical -- a narrative device intended only for the readers' sense of horror. However, most people hold that the so-called wings are in fact extensions of the great darkness that the Balrog surrounds itself with. These "wings" are simply shaped like wings and are seen and/or sensed by the characters in the story.
Many arguments have been proposed to explain the wings away and to explain how the text should actually be understood. The majority of attempts to explain these arguments on the Web misrepresent the facts, so as to make it seem like the "pro-wings" arguments make no sense. In fact, the wings should be viewed as portions of the Balrog's dark emanation that reach out in wing shapes in a display intended to daunt the Fellowship of the Ring.
Some of the arguments talk about a "Hithlum" passage in The Silmarillion. In that text, the Balrogs pass over Hithlum "with winged speed" and arrive in Lammoth "as a tempest of fire". While some people misrepresent the "pro-wings" argument as being based on the "winged speed" expression, the "pro-wings" argument is actually based on the "tempest of fire" expression. Whereas Tolkien used "winged speed" in at least one other passage to describe the great speed of a horse riding across an open plain, he only used "tempest of fire" elsewhere to describe the attack of flying, winged, flame-breathing dragons at the end of the War of Wrath. So while it can be generally agreed that Tolkien probably only intended "winged speed" to mean a very fast passage occurred, the "tempest of fire" metaphor strongly and clearly inspires an image of fire raining down from the sky. The Balrogs are said to be creatures of "flame and shadow", and their powers of flight need not be dependent upon any wings, as they are indeed fallen angels.
Tolkien Scholar Michael Martinez has written an excellent essay about the Balrogs where he covers all the points and explains why the Balrog's wings should not be dismissed so fanatically by people who don't like winged Balrogs. Read the truth about Balrogs. He also has an older essay called Do Balrogs Have Wings? Do Balrogs Fly?.
There is more information about Balrogs at the Balrogs Web site.
Michael Martinez also wrote a hilarious parody of the Lord of the Rings "The Bridge of Khazad-dum" chapter that makes fun of the Balrog Wings Debate.
TheOneRing.Net has a very cool gallery of Balrog artwork.
Suite101 has a recap of articles about the Balrog Wings Debate.
SciFi Stuff has an interesting essay about the Balrog.
This Web site was designed and created by and for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle-earth. No Balrogs where harmed in the making of this Web site. However, some small business internet marketing may have been ignored for the convenience of our readers.