XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies   
      
   In message    
     Sandman  wrote:   
   > In article ,   
   >  Troels Forchhammer  wrote:   
      
   >> >> /Letters/ is what happened to several of those controversies, and   
   >> >> HoME is what happened to the rest. :-)   
   >> >   
   >> > Apart from, of course, Balrog wings :-D   
   >>   
   >> And seemingly English professors happened to that most infamous of   
   >> debates ;-)  (I've seen a few professors of English argue that the   
   >> passage in question cannot, in proper English, imply any kind of actual   
   >> wings -- whether of flesh and blood or some immaterial shadow-stuff.)   
   >>   
   >> Seriuosly, though, it seems that everybody eventually just got fed up   
   >> with that discussion (I've been told that it had been going on at least   
   >> since the eighties, though it obviously didn't hit the on-line fora   
   >> until much later).   
      
   It was a discussion online in the 80's. I remember a rather heated flame   
   war involving Balrog wings, if Merry killed The Witch King, and   
   something or other about Éowyn that I didn't care much about. Oh, and   
   then there was the Tom Bombadil fight, that was a classic. There was a   
   lot of fighting and practically no one had access to any non-canon   
   materials (if there were any by then?) so it was great fun. There was   
   little bloodshed, all-in-all.   
      
   Some of this was on b-forum, but I think most of it was on a USENET   
   group as well.   
      
   > Myself, I subscribe to the conclusion that Balrogs had wings and could   
   > fly after 1940. Mostly because I think a winged Balrog is cooler, and   
   > it requires less "interpretation" of the source material :)   
      
   Exactly, there's a Balrog in Fantasia. QED.   
      
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