: Actually, it says the Balrog moved onto the Bridge:

But not to the CENTER. The book doesn't say whom came to whom.

[snip segmented citation]

: Galdalf remains planted in the middle of the bridge. The Balrog
: comes to him. Gandalf never moves, only the Balrog.

The book doesn't say that, either. It skips over the part of how they come together (unless the Balrog was huge enough by this point that one stride would take it to the center of the bridge).

I just checked THE TREASON OF ISENGARD, however, and in an early version of the passage the Balrog clearly strides out into the center of the bridge, so I'll accept that Tolkien probably omitted the detail in the final text but intended to retain the action.

: : The Balrog did, however, draw itself up to a great height.
: : Whatever size it may have had before, it clearly stretched or
: : grew or extended itself so that it was larger (taller) than
: : Gandalf (although this might apply only to the wings).

: The inside shape was "man-shape maybe, yet greater" But the
: shape was in the middle of a great shadow. The Balrog drew
: itself up to great height, but the only thing that spread frm
: wall to wall was its shadow.

"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." There was no "great shadow" because the word "like" is used.

It was the WINGS which spread from wall to wall. The WINGS. Tolkien only says the darkness grew, and then specifically that the very real and existing WINGS were spread from wall to wall.

: The Balrog is neither soley form nor shadow alone, but rather a
: form within a shadow.

The darkness (which you keep referring to a shadow, which didn't exist because Tolkien used the word "like") was part of the Balrog. It was a creature with a heart of fire and cloaked in darkness.

[snip]

: : Tolkien does not say the shadow precedes the Balrog. He says
: : first that "the Balrog fell forward" and then subsequently
: : says "its shadow plunged down and vanished". The shadow, in
: : this case, should be equated with the Balrog (which, as you
: : may recall, was introduced as a shadow).

: "With a terrible cry the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow
: plunged down and vanished. But even as it fell, it swing its
: whip..."

: I agree it's impossible to determine the precise order of
: events or even if there is an order or whether things are
: occurring simultaneously...

I'm sorry, but I didn't say it was impossible to discern the precise order of events. Clearly the Balrog's tumble precedes the departure of the darkness which surrounded it. :)

: ...What appears consistent is that there is a separation
: between the form of the Balrog and the shadow that surrounds
: it.

And between the wings which spread from wall to wall and the darkness which grows.

[snip]

: : You're assuming that the Balrog's body was somehow
: : "physical". This thing breathed fire. It apparently had
: : some density but I cannot emphasize enough that the Balrog's
: : body was simply not the usual flesh-and-blood combination one
: : was used to seeing.

: I don't see any evidence of that. It was just as much flesh
: and blood as the raiment of any other aina...

Excuse me? You don't see the part where it is surrounded by a darkness which grows, and which quite possibly forms or extends itself into the wings we are so carefully debating? What about the part where fire comes out of its nostrils? I've never come across a living flesh-and-blood creature which breathes fire through its nose.

The Balrog's body was "raiment" and a "body" but like Sauron's dark lord form, it was not a normal flesh-and-blood body (Sauron's dark form was so hot the heat killed Gil-galad -- clearly HE wasn't using ordinary flesh-and-blood EITHER).

: ...It was subject to physical harm as was Morgoth, Sauron,
: Gothmog, Sauron again, Gandalf, Saruman, etc. It was flesh and
: blood enough that it could be killed.

No, it was subject to physical harm. An automobile is subject to physical harm, as is a kite made of plastic and vinyl. Neither are made of flesh and blood.

: Side note: What movie is that line from? "If it bleeds we can
: kill it." Great line. :-)

The movie where the heroes found the blood from the monster?

: : Whether the wings should or could have flapped is not
: : resolvable, nor either convenient or inconvenient to the fact
: : of the Balrog's having wings. Ancalagon and Smaug were
: : dragons, not Balrogs. Their physiologies were those of
: : living, breathing creatures which could bleed (and did, when
: : pricked). Where does Tolkien say the Balrog bleeds?

: Swords seem to have some effect on them. Morgoth bled. Are we
: to suppose that Morgoth could bleed but balrogs could not?

Yes. Tolkien never once mentions a bleeding Balrog. Nor does he ever mention a bleeding Sauron. Just because they have BODIES doesn't mean they are flesh-and-blood bodies.

: : Impossible. They would have set Hithlum aflame had they just
: : been running on the ground. There is no indication that
: : Hithlum was burned, or that the Elves had to get out of the
: : way.

: I don't know whether Tolkien was considering the effects of
: friction on the Balrogs' passage over the plains of Hithlum.

Why shouldn't he? He considers the effects of their flame when they arrive in Lammoth as a "tempest of fire". Why should we seriously suggest that he would have overlooked the implications in one part of a sentence which clearly denotes them in another part?

: I really don't have a philosophical problem with Balrogs having wings or flying. However, I don't think their shadowy emanations were it.

: : That one objection to the "Balrogs actually ran all the way to Lammoth" argument has never been countered even in the most unreasonable fashion, that I can recall.

: Ainur could move though space. I don't know why its
: inconceivable that they could haul ass without the "raiment" of
: wings. We're talking raiment here.

We're talking flying winged Balrogs. Remember, the Balrogs didn't act like this in pre-LOTR material, such as "Quenta Silmarillion" from THE BOOK OF LOST TALES:

  $62 So great had Ungoliante become that she enmeshed Morgoth
  in her choking nets, and his awful cry echoed through the
  shuddering world.  To his aid there came the Balrogs that lived
  yet in the deepest places of his ancient fortress, Utumno in
  the North.  With their whips of flame the Balrogs smote the
  webs asunder, and drove away Ungoliante into the uttermost
  South, where she long remained....

Later on, when describing the onset of the Dagor Bragollach, Tolkien wrote:

  $134 There came a time of winter, when night was dark and
  without moon; and the wide plain of Bladorion stretched dim
  beneath the cold stars from the hill-forts of the Gnomes to
  the feet of Thangorodrim.  The watchfires burned low, and the
  guards were few; and on the plain few were waking in the camps
  of the horsemen of Hithlum.  Then suddenly Morgoth sent forth
  great rivers of flame that poured, swifter than the cavalry of
  the Balrogs, over all the plain....

Here, we can see, the Balrogs are still the creatures of Morgoth, and not corrupted Maiar. And in the next paragraph Tolkien writes:

  $135 In the front of that fire came Glomund the golden, the
  father of dragons, and in his train were Balrogs, and behind
  then came the black armies of the Orcs in multitudes such as
  the Gnomes had never before seen or imagined....

It was this passage from the pre-LOTR "Quenta Silmarillion" that Christopher used for The Silmarillion because there was nothing equivalent to use from the post-LOTR era material. All he had to work with there was "The Grey Annals" and the entry for year 455 was too brief:

  $145 The Fell Year.  Here came an end of peace and
  mirth.  In the winter, at the year's beginning, Morgoth
  unloosed at last his long-gathered strength, and he sought now
  to break with one great blow the leaguer of Angband, and to
  overthrow the Noldor and destroy Beleriand utterly.  The Battle
  began suddenly on the night of mid-winter, and fell first and
  most heavily upon the sons of Finrod.  This is named Dagor
  Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame.  Rivers of
  fire ran down from Thangorodrim, and Glaurung, Father of
  Dragons, came forth in his full might.  The green plains of
  Ardgalen were burned up and became a drear desert without
  growing thing; and thereafter they were called
  Anfauglith, the Gasping Dust.

Gone is all mention of Balrogs "in his train". The passage oft cited from The Silmarillion is therefore as irrelevant to the Balrog of Moria as the story "The Fall of Gondolin" from The Book of Lost Tales. It comes from a different era, a different phase of the mythology, when Balrogs were not corrupted Maiar, and their physical descriptions differed radically from that of the Balrog of Moria (pre-LOTR Balrogs were not surrounded by darkness, for example, and their whips were of flame, whereas the post-LOTR era Balrogs simply used whips of many thongs).

: From a pure physics and physiology standpoint, Balrogs flying
: at 500 mph is just as absurd as running at 500 mph. We're
: talking wings, not jet engines here.

You yourself have made the point that Balrogs were Maiar and could have moved through the universe as they willed. Whether the wings were used to propel them or not is up to the reader to decide, but clearly the "winged speed" reference along with the "tempest of fire" reference belongs to the post-LOTR era when Balrogs were not creatures that leaped around the landscape and rode into battle on mechanical dragons (or flesh-and-blood dragons or other beasts).

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