{"id":4349,"date":"2018-10-24T11:07:12","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T15:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/?p=4349"},"modified":"2018-10-24T17:10:39","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T21:10:39","slug":"does-the-balrog-from-lord-of-the-rings-have-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/2018\/10\/24\/does-the-balrog-from-lord-of-the-rings-have-wings\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the Balrog from Lord of the Rings have wings?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_4340\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4340\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/aw102418-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4340\" src=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/aw102418-2-300x289.jpg\" alt=\"Does the Balrog from Lord of the Rings have wings?\" width=\"300\" height=\"289\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/aw102418-2-300x289.jpg 300w, https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/aw102418-2.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4340\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Does the Balrog from Lord of the Rings have wings?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This controversy seems to stem from the tragic encounter with the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-D\u00fbm described in the FOTR. The text reads, \u201c\u2026the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings,\u201d and later, \u201c\u2026its wings were spread from wall to wall.\u201d Yet, Gandalf\u2019s description of the defeat of the Balrog in The Two Towers suggests the it was unable to fly: \u201che fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side.\u201d Did Gandalf so destroy the Balrog that it was unable to fly to save itself? Are Balrogs the penguins of Tolkien\u2019s universe? Were the wings merely a simile? In his foreword to the second edition, Tolkien admits that he \u201cfinds many defects, minor and major,\u201d but \u201cwill pass over these in silence.\u201d So perhaps this is one of the minor defects of this otherwise brilliant epic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This controversy seems to stem from the tragic encounter with the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-D\u00fbm described in the FOTR. The text reads, \u201c\u2026the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings,\u201d and later, \u201c\u2026its wings were spread from wall to wall.\u201d Yet, Gandalf\u2019s description of the defeat of the Balrog in The &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/2018\/10\/24\/does-the-balrog-from-lord-of-the-rings-have-wings\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Does the Balrog from Lord of the Rings have wings?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[387],"class_list":["post-4349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-lotr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4349"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4366,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions\/4366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}