An Essay by Christopher “SPinRH” Penningroth
Introduction
Nothing seems to stir controversy among devotees of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien more than arguments for and against his incarnate demons of Middle-earth, the Balrogs, having or not having sported corporeal wings. This essay will explore some of these notions. Admittedly the importance of the topic to the realms of science, politics, economics, or religion is so vanishingly small that it could justifiably be considered irrelevant. It is but a trifle that the essay’s author fancies: First, to puzzle out why this is a controversy at all. Second, to potentially make some sense of both “For” and “Against” arguments; and finally, to not necessarily arrive at a conclusion; in this way one could say of the author that one should go not to him with questions, for he will answer both “Yes” and “No.” Eternal bickering over the topic will be the closest to the immortality of Tolkien’s elves the author can possibly approach. We’ll start with the genesis of the controversy, this is found within the text of The Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien, FotR, 1954, pp. 344-345):
“Something was coming up behind [the ranks of orcs]. What it was could not be seen: It was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and terror seemed to be in it and to go before it.
It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as if a cloud had bent over it. Then with a rush it leaped across the fissure. The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. Its streaming mane kindled, and blazed behind it. In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire, in its left it held a whip of many thongs.”
The dark figure streaming with fire raced towards them.. . . For a moment the orcs quailed and the fiery shadow halted.
The Balrog reached the bridge. Gandalf stood in the middle of the span. . . . His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings. . . . Fire came from its nostrils.
. . . 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 height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall. . .
Emphasis has been added to the block quotation and will be added to subsequent quotations for the effect of highlighting the specific sources of the controversy. When necessary the essay will henceforth refer to this fictional entity described in the block quote above as the “Balrog of Moria” in order to disambiguate it from the other Balrogs of Morgoth that appeared either later (from the point of view of the avid readers) or earlier (in the chronology of Middle-earth) in The Silmarillion and other works. From the point of view of the completely-read Tolkien mavens who focus on the chronology of the legendarium, the first appearance of the Balrogs occurs in the second section of The Silmarillion, “Valaquenta,” (Tolkien, 2006, p. 19): “Dreadful among these spirits were the Valaraukar, the scourges of fire that in Middle-earth were called the Balrogs, demons of terror.” A bit of additional description is added in the third section, “Quenta Silmarillion,” chapter 3 (Tolkien, 2006, p. 35):
And in Utumno he gathered his demons about him, those spirits who first adhered to him in the days of his splendour, and became most like him in his corruption: their hearts were of fire, but they were cloaked in darkness, and terror went before them; they had whips of flame. Balrogs they were named in Middle-earth in later days.
According to the index in The Silmarillion (Tolkien, 2006, p. 294) Balrogs are mentioned in at least eleven instances of the text[1], two of which are recounted above; both of these accounts equate Balrogs with demons. This will be an important point later. While the remainder of the references in The Silmarillion refer anecdotally to shadows and most of them emphasize the fiery aspect of their incarnations, none of the descriptions in The Silmarillion mention wings outright. How then did afficionados make the mental leap from no overt descriptions of wings extant in The Silmarillion to Balrogs potentially having them based on the text of The Fellowship of the Ring?
As a practical matter, and as alluded, The Silmarillion was published in 1977, well after The Lord of the Rings in 1954-1955; the genesis of the controversy likely precedes publication of The Silmarillion. In any case, The Silmarillion offers only the absence of data about Balrog wings—which must be accepted itself as data about Balrog wings.
However, despite what many enthusiasts (“Sage”, 2009), including a handful of popular podcasters (Sisto & Marchese, 2025) would have people believe, the question cannot be simply discarded in favor of absence of Balrog wings based on the paucity of further descriptions of wings in The Silmarillion, Morgoth’s Ring (Tolkien, 1993), or based on the limited information Tolkien gave readers initially in The Fellowship of the Ring (otherwise the rationale for having written this essay would be thinner than the summer ice on the Bay of Forochel). Why is this so?
Linguistic ideational analysis
A simplistic view would be to ignore the body of historical works of art in visual and textual media extant in Tolkien’s lifetime and focus narrowly on the immediate use of part of the language Tolkien deployed in the two phrases that mention wings in The Fellowship of the Ring (FotR, 1954, pp. 344-345). Many more casual enthusiasts focus on the first mention of wings: “. . . and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings. . .” and insist that what Tolkien meant was that the “Shadow” about the Balrog may have seemed like wings but were not actual wings. They then dismiss the second mention of wings: “. . . and its wings were spread from wall to wall. . . “ as a continuation of what they consider the simile description in the earlier phrase. This simplistic interpretation requires the reader to ignore the introductory description: “It was like a great shadow. . . “ establishing first and foremost that the entire incorporeal Balrog was shadow-like in appearance. So, the being who was like a shadow had a key element of its corporeal form cast about it in a way that reached out like two vast wings, and this element of its being spread from wall-to-wall. How would a shadow of a man-like form reach from wall-to-wall? Could wings have possibly done that? Logic would indicate in the affirmative. Wings themselves would indeed reach out like wings. Delving perhaps too deeply into the mechanics of simile beginning with the first description of the Balrog tends to leave one with the impression that the entire incorporation is subject to the reader’s interpretation of whatever lies within the shadow This will be another important point explored later.
On the other hand regarding the analysis of simile, if it were the case that actual wings themselves cast some sort of corporeal shadow, why would a master of language on the order of Tolkien not simply have written something more akin to “. . . the shadow about it reached out along with its two vast wings,” or “. . . its two vast wings extended the reach of its shadow. . . ” if he meant to convey an idea that the Balrog of Moria had wings? The fact that he did not do so, one must admit, provides at least some impetus to the notion that the Balrog did not in fact have wings. Otherwise, as noted above, the imagery called into the mind’s eye depends on the reader’s interpretation. Why then did so many readers’ interpretations result in a Balrog with wings? One pointed comment offered by a treasured proofreader of a draft of this essay is that the reader’s interpretation is an image of a monster of fire and darkness that creates terror; winged monsters are more terrifying than unwinged ones. The image drawn of the Balrog in the mind’s eye then depends on what each person finds terrifying. Drawing one’s fears in artistic depictions and subsequently analyzing these depictions offers further clues.
Visual ideational analysis
The movie adaptations of The Lord of the Rings give us one clue to this mystery. One cannot escape noticing that the writers of both the 1978 Ralph Bakshi animated adaptation (Bakshi, “Partially restored Gandalf vs. Balrog deleted shots from Lord of the Rings (1978) #lotr #tolkien”, 2022) and the 2001 Peter Jackson adaptation (Osborne, Jackson, Walsh, & Sanders, 2001) interpreted the Balrog of Moria as having wings and depicted it with wings. Jackson’s movie rendition was careful to create the demon’s wings as shadowy appendages appearing as a result of a flare-up of the flame aspect of the fallen spirit (Osborne, Jackson, Walsh, & Sanders, 2001) and is regarded by some as more faithful to the book’s description (Martin N. , 2023); while the seemingly-official Weta Workshop statuary of the Balrog does include barely-extended dragon-like wings for the figure (“elessar”, 2014). Bakshi’s interpretation of the Balrog included explicit bat-wings (Zaentz, The Lord of the Rings, 1978) (Bakshi, “Partially restored Gandalf vs. Balrog deleted shots from Lord of the Rings (1978) #lotr #tolkien”, 2022) (Vaux, 2022); according to one source (Vaux, 2022) this may have been done to disambiguate a nearly-human-sized Balrog from the surrounding nearly-human-sized orcs and to provide a more dramatically theatrical entrance to the fight with Gandalf. Some indicate that the imagery of wings visually add a sense of increased menace to a demon conceptually meant to inspire terror in its adversaries in both text and in visual formats. We are left with two of the most prominent visual adaptations of Tolkien’s work at the least with both having interpreted the Balrog with wings. Bakshi’s bat-winged Balrog provides a further clue that will be revealed later in the essay.
Turning aside from the popular motion picture adaptations, we return to the texts. Enthusiasts who have gone on to carefully study Balrogs in The Silmarillion may have a tendency to cry “Foul,” then insist that the Balrogs were flightless, and the absence of all textual imagery provides proof sufficient for themselves that Balrogs were all wingless. Not so fast.
Or perhaps it would be fairer to say “Too fast.”
Logistic performance analysis
The first battle of any consequence involving Balrogs in Middle-earth occurs on pages 67-68 of The Silmarillion (Tolkien, 2006) (Tolkien, Morgoth’s Ring, 1993, p. 109). The Balrogs are summoned to Lammoth from Angband at the screaming of Morgoth as he is being attacked by Ungoliant. How quickly did the Balrogs arrive? This is not definitively stated in the texts that are considered canonical. Furthermore and unfortunately, there is no reliable precise data for either the distance between Angband and Lammoth or the times or dates between the Balrogs’ departure from Angband and their arrival at Lammoth to determine either marching or flying speed. For the sake of argument, and since it was not mentioned as a possibility, assume the Balrogs neither teleported nor traveled instantaneously in any way. From some maps and descriptions, Lammoth is probably around 225 leagues (675 statute miles (mi), 587 nautical miles (nm), or about 1,086 kilometers (km)) from Angband (Tolkien, “The second Silmarillion map (High resolution)”, 2014) based on both his own map and using the distance of 150 leagues from the gates of Angband to the bridge of Menegroth (Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 2006, p. 82) as an approximate scaling measure[2]. The U.S. Army uses an average marching rate for foot soldiers of 20-32 km per day (Headquarters, Department of the Army, 2022, p. 1.14). If the Balrogs were soldiers traveling at the top rate of march, and assuming they departed Angband the instant they heard Morgoth’s call, and further assuming that Morgoth’s call somehow traveled the distance instantaneously[3], the Balrogs would arrive at Lammoth from Angband in just under 34 days—effectively an entire month[4]. This number assumes eight hours of marching on roads during the daytime. The Balrogs would have traversed two mountain ranges (Ered Wethrin and Ered Lomin) and three undeveloped regions (Anfauglith, Hithlum, and Lammoth)—all at night, since the moon and sun had not yet been created. Assuming they did not rest at all (probably a valid assumption—why would demons have to stop to rest?) and a march rate of 3.2 kilometers per hour: 1,086 km divided by 3.2 km/hr results in almost 340 days—almost 93% of an entire standard year. Again, Tolkien did not provide an amount of time between Morgoth’s frantic and erratic and effectively accidental vocal summons and the arrival of the Balrogs. But a week to nearly a year seems like a long time to leave Morgoth blundering about in Ungoliant’s webs.
However, consider a different and possibly sillier angle to the traveling problem. if the Balrogs were able to fly at the speeds of a reasonably modern jet trainer such as the U.S. Air Force’s T-38C Talon, they could obviously arrive much faster. Assuming they instantaneously attain 480 knots calibrated airspeed (approximately 0.73 Mach at 500-to-1,000 feet altitude on a standard day of 15° C or 59° F) upon takeoff from Angband; using a rule-of-thumb of 7.3 nautical miles per minute, the Balrogs would arrive in Lammoth in about 81 minutes[5], or about an hour and twenty minutes. Why is this number silly? What winged creatures can attain the speeds of a reasonably modern jet training aircraft? None, of course! In any case, there was no mention by Tolkien of an airfield with an 8,000 foot long by 150 foot wide concrete runway capable of operating jet Balrogs.
If Balrogs could fly as fast as a Peregrine falcon could dive (approximately 186 mph)[6] (Birdfact, 2023), the time increases to 3.6 hours from jet speeds. This is a specific flight case, and is not sustainable in level flight by creatures we humans understand. The fastest level-flight winged creature appears to be either the grey-headed albatross at 79 mph for over eight hours (with a probable tailwind) or the common swift at about 69 mph (Guiness World Records Limited, 2010) (Birdfact, 2023). Flying continuously at the top speed of the common swift, winged Balrogs could arrive in under 10 hours. Flying speeds for this situation put the Balrogs’ whips at Ungoliant’s hide in something closer to a reasonable amount of time for direct combat support. Again, Tolkien did not indicate the amount of time between the call and the arrival of support, or whether it was hours, days, weeks, or months. An approximation for the year the conflict occurred given in some online resources that reference appropriate History of Middle-earth volumes offer the “Year of the Trees” 1495 as the date of the destruction of the Two Trees of Valinor by Ungoliant and Morgoth (“Hyarion”, 2024) and 1497 as the date in which the Noldor began arriving in Middle-earth (“Tyelkormo the Fair” & “Duguay”, 2023), which was probably after Morgoth’s summoning of the Balrogs to his aid. To warriors of the latter 20th Century and 21st Century, who are accustomed to air support arriving overhead within minutes in combat, a span of days until aid seems to be unacceptably long. Modern audiences therefore would likely consider this particular combat support problem more adequately resolved if the Balrogs were able to fly—with or without wings. Admittedly, to pre-flying generations and to folks familiar with mythological sources, the notion that a battle between malevolent deity-like spirits unfolding over the course of an entire year is probably at least somewhat easy to countenance. The Rohirrim took five days to relieve the siege of Minas Tirith after setting out from Dunharrow, after all (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: Appendix B, 1955, p. 374). The notion that support must arrive quickly may cause some readers to infer that Balrogs must have wings in order to be able to move rapidly, even absent direct textual evidence. Perhaps the “Not-so-fast” interpretation can also be correct in the context of the canonical legendarium. Logistical analysis does not unequivocally decide the matter in this way. What may have decided the matter in clear favor of Balrogs having wings is shown in a perusal of the non-canonical The History of Middle Earth volume X (Tolkien, Morgoth’s Ring, 1993, p. 297): “Swiftly they arose, and they passed with winged speed over Hithlum, and they came to Lammoth as a tempest of fire.” While spirit-beings could conceivably move quickly over the terra firma of Hithlum, one must admit that the clearest and most obvious way to move with “Winged speed” would be by using wings. Unfortunately for us, the exclusion of this phrase from The Silmarillion spins enthusiasts back onto the horns of the dilemma.
Since Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson appear to have been neither soldiers nor pilots, the imagery of Balrog wings probably cannot be said to originate with the sort of imagination required to fit the logistic problem above. What else might account for a notion that demons should have wings? Since Tolkien was Catholic and heavily influenced by the Bible, an answer may lie within either the Bible itself or in artistic representations of Biblical demons.
Balrogs as fallen angels
Biblical demons may be fallen angels (Baker, 2024), although this may not be conclusive (Martin D. B., 2010, p. 657); however Martin seems to exclude one rather important authority on the matter: The author of Revelation, who was probably the Apostle John in exile on the Greek Island of Patmos; as well as having missed key descriptions in Ezekiel (Evans, 2007). Many angels are said to have fallen with Lucifer at some point in history according to many verses, especially Revelation 12:3-4 and 12:9 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 1308). Lucifer and his demons are pretty clearly the inspiration for Melkor (Tolkien, Morgoth’s Ring, 1993, p. 270) and the Balrogs (Tolkien, Morgoth’s Ring, 1993, pp. 70 and 75-76), although Lucifer is not as distinctly described in The Bible as is Melkor in The Silmarillion. Since there is some equivalence between demons and angels, it may serve to use angelic imagery as well as demonic imagery in writing or in text form to determine a source for winged ideation, so to say.
Satan is directly referenced in Job 1:6-12 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 536) being in the presence of God and the angels, but no mention is made of Luciferian or angelic wings, only that Satan had appeared after roaming to-and-fro over the Earth—left unstated is the method of roaming; however, roaming seems to imply terrestrial travel. Lucifer or Satan is obliquely referenced in Isaiah 14:12 (NIV) (The Zondervan Corporation and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2005, p. 1081), which says “How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!” However, a bit later in verse 13 we see “I will ascend to the heavens; […] I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.” Mount Zaphon, according to the footnotes for the verse, was the most sacred mountain of the Canaanites. This gives some indication that the fall from heaven may have been just from a lofty height. According to some sources including the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies (Lipnick, 2014), Mount Zaphon is a mountain in modern-day Turkey known in Turkish as Mount Kiliç and in Arabic as Jebel Aqraa, or “Bald Mountain” and stands just over 1,700 meters (about 5,600 feet) above the Orontes River near the Mediterranean coast. Without delving too deeply into meteorological phenomena, this height can indeed be higher than some low clouds, but certainly not all or probably even most clouds. Since Isaiah 14:14 continues by saying “I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” This can be taken as an indication that heaven is above this, and could only be reached by flying. (The Zondervan Corporation and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2005, p. 1081). This does not necessarily lead one to conclude that Lucifer had wings, but Isaiah may not have been the only prophet trying to describe the fate of Lucifer or Satan. Some interpretations of Ezekiel 28:14-17 are believed to refer to Lucifer (Baker, 2024). In this passage he is referred to as a guardian cherub who walked among the fiery stones on the holy mountain of God (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 906). Moving from the Old Testament to the New Testament book of Luke, in verses 10:17-18 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 1096), Jesus responds to the return of the seventy-two disciples who reported encounters with demons saying “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning.” John writes of Satan in Revelation 12:3-4 and 10 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 1308) and in Revelation 20:2 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 1315) as if he is a dragon, the accuser of Christians, who has been thrown down from heaven. Verse 4 specifically refers to the number of then-celestial beings Lucifer took with him when he fell—one-third of them. These would refer to the fallen angels or demons. While these verses do not directly address the existence of wings for fallen angels, the imagery of their existence in the sky or heaven would naturally push humans to visualize wings in the context of a being that seemingly lived in or above the air. Indirectly, however, if Ezekiel was in fact referring to Lucifer; cherubs are described in the Bible as having wings, therefore Lucifer probably had wings, at least while he was in good grace.
The cherubim are introduced in Genesis 3:24 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 4) as the guardians of the way back to Eden forever barring man’s return. They next appear in Exodus 25:18-22 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 85) when God instructs Moses in the construction of the Ark of the Covenant to craft two cherubim on the atonement cover. Verse 20 is very specific: “And the cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the atoning cover with their wings and facing one another” [italics in original, bolded for emphasis]. Later verses in Exodus that include cherubim sometimes mention the wings in context of the Ark of the Covenant but omits mention of wings when cherubim are to be woven into tapestry. In 2 Samuel 22:11 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 353), David singing a song of praise suggests God mounted cherubim as one would mount a horse and flew, appearing on “The wings of the wind.” While the cherubim are not directly said to have wings in this passage, the wings are metaphorically assigned to the wind. There is no certain evidence to associate this use of metaphor with Tolkien’s description of the Balrog of Moria, but as someone familiar with scripture, perhaps Tolkien’s sometimes-Biblical style of writing was influenced by passages such as this one. Continuing to David’s heir Solomon, 1 Kings 6:23-35 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 366) describes the construction of the temple and the inclusion of statues of cherubim; 2 Chronicles 3:11-14 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 462) echo these descriptions. 1 Kings 6:23-28 explain the cherubim in the inner sanctuary and include their dimensions.: Ten cubits high with a wingspan of ten cubits. Converting this to modern units of measurement using the archaeological long cubit of 0.525 meters (Stone, 2014, p. 2), the cherubim in the Temple’s inner sanctuary had a wingspan of 5.25 meters, or 17.22 feet; the two cherubim in the inner sanctuary touched wingtip-to-wall while their inner wingtips touched the other cherub’s wingtip. The inner sanctuary was thereby covered by the protective wings of the cherubim. Tolkien’s description of the Balrog of Moria’s shadow-wings spreading from wall-to-wall in the eternal night in the depths of Moria offers a dark and sinister antithesis to the protective nature of the bright gold-covered wings of the cherubim in the inner sanctuary of the Temple of Solomon[7]. Interestingly, as in Exodus after the cherubim on the cover of atonement of the Ark of the Covenant, no further mention is made in verses 29-35 of wings for the cherubim in the carvings of them on the walls and doors of the Temple. Omitting mention of wings is a visible trend within the Bible itself; Tolkien may have been following a long-established pattern in this regard. Mentions of cherubim in Ezekiel 10 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, pp. 882-883) include the wings along with other incredible features of these spiritual creatures. The other winged angels that appear in the Bible, the six-winged fiery heralds called seraphim, only appear in Isaiah 6 (Lockman Foundation, 2020, p. 727). Once again, while there were likely other analogs in the mythology of the British Isles comparable to Balrogs, here within Scripture is a potential—for lack of a better term—antilog to the Balrog. An antilog with wings. Were the Balrog analogous, then perhaps wings would be appropriate; if antilogous, then perhaps wings, at least useful ones, are not.Perchance having established that various sorts of angels such as guardian angels and perhaps even Lucifer were winged spirits, a further analysis of other angels or demons may offer some insight.
Angels in the Bible appear relatively frequently as messengers of God, transmitting messages from Him to specific people (Youvan, 2024, p. 4). Since wings were not specified for most of the lesser heralds (Griffin, 2025), how did wings creep into the iconography of nearly all angels? Youvan (2024, pp. 5-7) suggests that Near Eastern or Greco-Roman winged figures such as Nike, Hermes, or Eros eventually morphed into later depictions of angels of the Lord. Wings are said to be themselves symbols of spirituality and transcendence and sometimes purity or even omnipresence and omnipotence, conveying an ability to rapidly move between the earthly and the divine (Youvan, 2024, pp. 10-11 and 18-19). Descriptions of archangels Michael and Gabriel usually include wings. Daniel 9:21 (Lockman Foundation, 2020) recounts Gabriel coming to him “In swift flight”; not specifically mentioning wings, but from the context it is understandable that readers would infer Gabriel had wings to perform the feat of flight. Michael is mentioned several times and in similar fashion to Gabriel. Michael and his angels will have fought against the dragon [Satan] in heaven according to Revelation 12:7 (Lockman Foundation, 2020). As with Gabriel, people can be forgiven for ascribing wings to Michael, as wings would enable him to conduct combat in the heavens. If angels can be said to be hierarchical, then there is some evidence that the more wings, the closer to God (Youvan, 2024, p. 20). As an aside, the U.S. Air Force denotes flight experience (a sort of hierarchy) in a similar way with progressive elaboration of the pilot’s silver wings; “Slick” wings denote a pilot’s early years, adding a star at the senior level and a command-style wreath around the star for the most experienced pilots. Returning to the matter of angels, and proceeding through time from 12th Century England (Eadwine, “Page f033v”, 2013)[8] through the Renaissance on to the 19th and 20th Centuries, the times in which Tolkien likely found his own inspirations, artists from Raphael (Sanzio, 1513-1514) and da Vinci (da Vinci, 1472) to William Blake (Blake, 1799-1800) incorporated wings into their artworks of angels. A good deal of religious architecture in England displays angels with wings (Rimmer, 2015, pp. 23-103). The entrance to the chapel at Tolkien’s Exeter College featured a tapestry called the Adoration of the Magi (Alden, 2012) (Exeter College, 2019) (Morris & Burne-Jones, 1904) depicting an angel with wings. Tolkien, along with most people, probably cannot help but associate angels with wings. But as others point out, not all angels have them according to scripture. So much for the good, what about the antithesis of the angels: The demons?
Balrogs as demons
Demons in the Bible appear textually primarily in the New Testament, although according to Dale Martin (Martin D. B., 2010, pp. 658-659) the Hebrew words translated later into Greek as “Demon” may have also referred to the pagan gods or mythical creatures of nearby cultures, such as Assyrian bull-like idols (which itself sometimes had wings) or Greek satyrs such as their demigod Pan. Interestingly, satyrs are thought to have goat legs; the description by Ezekiel in chapter 1:5-25 of what may be Ophanim angels (Lockman Foundation, 2020, pp. 875-876) includes calf-like legs; but while the Ophanim (Evans, 2007, p. 653) had four wings, satyrs are not thought to be winged creatures. Descriptions of demons in the New Testament barely include any sort of corporeality. When they are mentioned traveling it is when they are “Leaving” people when exorcised, as in the legion of demons possessing the man described in both Mark 5:1-17 (The Zondervan Corporation and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2005, p. 1633) and Luke 8:26-39 (The Zondervan Corporation and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2005, p. 1686); upon being cast from the man, they entered into a nearby swineherd, but there is no mention of flying from the man to the pigs. The Bible is of very little direct help in this case, and again the absence of data therein lends credence to the idea that there may not be wings on demons. One is left to ask once more, “From whence comes the imagery of demons with wings?”
Michael Cheong (2013), a scholar of Anglo-Saxon who studied the idea of demons and wings has found an absence of descriptions of wings on demons in Felix’s The Life of Guthlac[9], although Satan is depicted with wings in the same era. Other manuscripts of the era also show demons with no wings (Eadwine, “Page f005v”, 2013). Cheong was left with no answer to his question “When did demons grow wings” and supposes as many others likely do that the popular conception of demons as fallen angels may have resulted in a concept that at least some demons retained wings and the ability to fly (Cheong, 2013). Marco Riccucci (2023, p. 138) pins the date of the appearance of bat-wings on demons in the mid-13th Century as a result of travelers bringing stories or artwork of Eastern demons. Riccucci includes many Western art depictions of bat-winged demons or devils, from “The Baptism of Christ; the Temptations in the Wilderness” in the Psalter of Blanche of Castile circa 1223 (p. 140); to the Baptistery of St. John in Florence by Coppo di Marcovaldo circa 1260-1270 (p. 141); to Cacciata dei diavoli da Arezzo, or the Expulsion of the devils from Arezzo, circa 1295-1299 by Giotto (p. 138). The infernal scene by di Marcovaldo (not fully depicted but described in Riccucci’s work) may have been an inspiration for Dante Allegheri’s Inferno in the Divine Comedy (Riccucci, 2023, p. 143). Tolkien would almost certainly have been familiar with Dante’s work, and possibly also direct or derivative imagery of “The Temptations in the Wilderness.” Illustrations of Dante’s Inferno include bat-winged demons by an unknown artist in 1491, Sandro Botticelli circa 1481, William Blake from 1824-1827, John Flaxman, Gustave Doré in 1868, and John D. Batten in 1932 (Fishwick-Ford & Cook, 2025). From the 13th Century onward, examples of depictions of demons with wings have appeared widely, including in The Infernal Dictionary (de Plancy, 1863), in the demon-like sprite Puck in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (George Mason University, 2025), Milton in Paradise Lost (1667, pp. 139-140), and in some gothic statuary of demon-like gargoyles (Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1990-1994). Depictions of demons with bat-like wings were probably common enough to Tolkien and to us that these features became intuitively obvious. It was likely as common to see, and therefore to imagine, demons with wings as it was to see them or imagine them without wings.
As with imagery of angels, it may be that mankind recognizes an image of an angel or of a demon and identifies it more quickly if it is depicted with wings, as it provides immediate visual separation between the spiritual being and the man. Having nine centuries’ worth of artwork depicting many demons with wings probably has an associative effect on learning in which humans develop a conditioned response to imagine their demons having wings given the frequency of conditioning stimuli of a preponderance of attention-demanding artworks including them (Balsam, Drew, & Gallistel, 2011, pp. 2-3). It has probably literally become natural for many humans, especially those exposed to visual artworks, to associate angels and demons with wings. The learned association of demons with wings coupled with direct association of Balrogs with demons, via the logical transitive property of equality causes people to automatically associate Balrogs with wings.
Winged by choice
In a libertarian sense and within the rules created for Middle-earth by Tolkien, the celestials, the Valar and the Maiar, the beings of Tolkien’s angelic orders were able to choose the form by which they appeared to the Children of Ilúvatar (Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 2006, p. 9). Both the good incarnations of the Maiar such as Melian and Gandalf, and the evil incarnations of the Maiar such as Sauron and the Balrogs may lose their ability to change their raiment after eons, epochs, or ages; or after trauma (Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 2006, pp. 257, 268) (Tolkien, “Ósanwe-kenta”, 1998, p. 30). Who is to say that before permanent embodiment that some, all, or none of the Balrogs elected to display wings as part of their incarnate forms? Perhaps some elected wings, and others did not.
Other points of view
In yet another mildly libertarian sense; due to varied influences on the experiences of the readers, and with apologies to physicists Erwin Schrödinger (Trimmer, 1980, p. 328) and Werner Heisenberg (Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle (German), 1927, p. 179) (“The actual content of quantum theoretical kinematics and mechanics”, 1983, p. 12); perhaps Balrogs simultaneously have and do not have wings. Balrog wings may exist in a state of quantum indeterminacy, and by attempting to measure whether they have them or not, one changes the answer. This way everyone can be correct. Or everyone can be incorrect. As long as no one tries to determine for certain.
From a whimsical and purely aviation-centric point of view, Balrogs are not pilots; therefore Balrogs cannot have wings à la the sense of modern aviators who earn them[10]. On the other hand, the Eagles of Manwë and later generations of eagles in Middle-earth are not pilots, and they clearly do have wings. The world of professional aviation does not quite rescue readers from the quandary.
Conclusion
This essay has been a wide-ranging look at reasons many believe Tolkien’s Balrogs either did or did not have wings. It began with a description of the start of the controversy originating in Tolkien’s own words. From that starting point it analyzed reasons visual ideation of the Balrogs led to a tendency for many, including two motion picture producers, to presume wings were included on these prevaricators of wickedness in Middle-earth. It then switched to explaining rationales for- and against the notion that Balrogs had wings based on inferred solutions to implied logistical problems resulting from textual descriptions of events primarily in The Silmarillion. It then moved into a simulacrum of the spiritual realm and analyzed Balrogs as both fallen angels and as demons; pondering explanations from sacred texts and from historical works of literature and art that may give insight into reasons whether or not Balrogs ought to have been depicted with wings in conformity with more standard displays of these spirit-beings. The essay began ending with a few relatively whimsical takes on the matter and settled finally on the author’s conclusion of the matter.
The author concludes by establishing his position based on the evidence extant in Morgoth’s Ring and from the preponderance of visual artwork in the centuries preceding Tolkien’s lifetime, and also from the many subsequent works of art issued after publication of The Lord of the Rings: The Balrog of Moria and others, but perhaps not all Balrogs, did in fact have wings.
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Acknowledgements
The author wishes to extend tremendous gratitude to everyone who offered commentary, proofread the draft, or facilitated the presentation in all ways. These include Brian A., Evan C., Scott G., and Jeff M.
Very sincere thanks to my family members who patiently picked up a few evening-time household chores, giving me needed time to complete the essay; and who then listened to me read this work of academic literary art aloud to them. The valuable commentary generated was incorporated into the document. All offered laughter and encouragement, adding to the delight of the work.
[1] Mentions occur on pages 19 (first introduction), 35 (second introduction), 67-8 (attack on Ungoliant), 94-5 (Fëanor defeated), 107 (Ungoliant fled), 136 (Dagor Bragollach), 137 (versus Elves and Men of Hithlum), 151 (guardians of the Iron Crown), 175-6 (Nirnaeth Arnoediad), 223-4 (attack on Gondolin), and 231 (destruction of most of the Balrogs).
[2] We will leave aside that the Angband-to-Menegroth measurement is north-to-south while Angband-to-Lammoth is nearer to east-to-west and at northern latitudes—Middle-earth was flat at the time of the event described, and even at the high latitude of Beleriand the E/W scale may be presumed to be the same as the N/S scale. This would be an invalid assumption if using a two-dimensional Mercator-like projection of an oblate spheroid such as planet Earth.
[3] The sound would have taken about an hour to travel that distance—see the Mach-based calculations later in the text.
[4] An astute proofreader noted that Balrogs are described as much larger than human and would therefore have had a much larger stride. If marching at the same pace as a human, each stride would cover a greater distance and the marching Balrog would proceed significantly quicker than a human. Since a specific size was not given, readers can sensibly presume their march speed could be 100% or even 200% quicker than a man’s. Adjusted top speeds would reduce the time range from a minimum of 11 days, eight hours up to just over 113 days.
[5] The rule-of-thumb is an aircraft’s speed in nautical miles per minute is approximately 10 times the indicated Mach number. In this case, the time calculation based on distance divided by speed is 587 nm / (10/min x 0.73 M) = 80.41 minutes.
[6] At low Mach numbers, the rule-of-thumb mentioned earlier is no longer used.
[7] Milton alludes to the protective nature of outspread mighty wings in Paradise Lost (1667, pp. 28-29).
[8] The Eadwine Psalter (2013) has numerous illuminations in which human-like angels are depicted, and always with wings—this was likely done to differentiate them from humans. Demons are depicted as clearly monstrous.
[9] Access is available online to Oxford University faculty and students or Bodleian Library cardholders; alas the author is none of these.
[10] Interestingly, the French à la (“In the style of”) is a near-homonym of the Latin ala, or “Wing.” The Latin word eventually arrived in English via French through the word “Aileron,” the component of the wing responsible for changing the rate of roll about the aircraft’s lateral axis. In French aileron means “The extremity of a bird’s wing” (Anderson, Jr, 1989, p. 405).