: Whether you take that particular passage as a whole or break
: down and examine the individual pieces, the fact remains that
: it can mean flightless balrogs.

Nope. Many have said that, none have been able to show it. It's not enough merely to say it means flightless Balrogs. If someone asks how you need to be able to show them.

There is nothing ambiguous about the sentence. It clealy puts the Balrogs in flight over Hithlum and nothing else.

: : Nonetheless, they [tempests] are a part of the sky. The sky
: : begins where the ground begins.

: Huh?

Sky. Tempests, storms, air -- the sky is the air above the world and space beyond.

: : It would be just as invalid to say, "Well, Tolkien used
: : 'tempest of fire' to speak of the flying dragons, so 'tempest
: : of fire' can only refer to things in the sky". It refers to
: : flying Balrogs because the rest of the sentence, taken
: : together with "tempest of fire", makes it clear that they
: : were in the sky.

: In terms of syntax, that is partially correct. However, it can
: be viably argued that the syntax of the Hithlum passage is
: clouded by murky semantics. The only clear syntax of balrog
: description to be found is in the passages describing the
: incident at Durin's Bridge.

Nope. Syntax deals with sentence structure. Semantics deals with the meaning of words. The syntax of the Hithlum passage is quite clear: "Swiftly they arose" (this is an independent clause) ", and" (this is a conjunction joining two independent clauses), they passed with winged speed over Hithlum" (this is another independent clause) ", and" (another conjunction) "they came to Lammoth as a tempest of fire" (a third independent clause).

The first clause indicates the Balrogs rose quickly. They might or might not have been flying, but the second clause indicates they passed over Hithlum swiftly and Hithlum was not a plain like Ard-Galen it was surrounded by mountains and had a chane of mountains passing through it, so "running through Hithlum" is simply pure nonsense, since they don't set it afire as they come to "Lammoth as a tempest of fire". Fire burns.

: : Your other criticisms are fair. But if one side raises an
: : issue, no matter how illogical, the other side should
: : respond, or an impression is laid upon the audience of an
: : invincible argument having been given.

: I don't deny that people should debate issues they disagree
: with, but it helps to eliminate arguments that cannot aid the
: progression of the debate.

That's pretty much what I do. There is nothing wrong with the syntax of the Hithlum sentence, and it's by no means ambiguous in meaning.

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