"The Balrog reached the bridge. Gandalf stood in the middle of the span, leaning on the staff in his left hand, but in his other hand Glamdring gleamed, cold and white. His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings. But Gandalf stood firm."  

                                                                                                                           -The Fellowship of the Ring, The Bridge of Khazad-Dum


John Howe and Weta Workshop really set the standard on how Balrogs are depicted. While Tolkien never gave a clear and explicit description of these strange creatures, one would be hard-pressed to find a rendering of a Balrog that doesn't resemble the Peter Jackson version. However, as impressive as the monster appears in the films, I imagined something different when paging through the text. The Professor states that it is man-like  in shape, so I avoided the cloven hooves and tail found in the cinematic version. The theatrical portrayal makes it enormous, standing easily over twenty feet high, yet J.R.R. mentions in the Silmarillion that Balrogs are only twice as tall as the elves. I chose to make it more menacing and mysterious as opposed to big and noisy. This demon of the ancient world  is less beast-like and more human since the Balrogs are not really animals, as one might assume from the movies, but corrupted Maiar. It is entirely possible that Gandalf, being one of the Maiar himself, personally knew this monster before it was deceived by Morgoth, making the confrontation in Khazad-Dum that much more bitter and compelling. The flame burning through the Balrog's chest is purely artistic license on my part, but I thought it fitting to show the flame of Udun fully consuming the heart of this being and revealing some of it's skeletal structure.


Done in ink and marker