Gothmog Maquette

Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, Morgoth's greatest servant (apart from Sauron) and champion on the field of battle.

Thought I'd try a sculpture for the sketchblog. A balrog seemed fitting, since much of the inspiration for my depiction of balrogs comes from statuary.

I think Tolkien's conception of balrogs (as was the case with his whole high-fantasy opus) evolved considerably over the course of his life, starting out as somewhat the equivalent of the norse giants; big formidable bruisers, but nothing a great warrior among elves or men couldn't take (half a dozen at a time no less) and ending up in his later writing as something closer to the catholic portrayal of fallen angels; these near-insurmountably powerful, demonic foes of whom it is well understood, no one ever fights one and lives. Really they are both at once, just as Morgoth could be said to be both Satan and Loki, though personally I tend to gravitate in my portrayal of balrogs toward the later, more "christian" context (christianity is just so uncompromisingly hardcore about "good vs evil" compared to polytheistic religions, and I think that uncompromized, absolute evil fits well with servants of Morgoth, especially those as high up the chain as balrogs) they're these aloof, silent figures, basically identity-less, perhaps from being converted so early to Morgoth's service (unlike a possibly later acquisition like Sauron, who is stated to have been a maiar of Aule, and has his own name and very much his own character, whereas no earlier ruling vala is mentioned for the balrogs, perhaps they were Morgoth's first converts, back before the whole pantheon was really consolidated) I always saw them as being kind of beautiful and 'godly' in their own way; they're like ruined, demonic versions of michelangelo's anonymous nude youths from the sistine chapel, retaining that tremendous power and authority of members of the divine race, but turned monstrous, "profane" rather than "sacred" (to borrow a term from art history) given their influences, the balrogs are one of the few instances where I'll break my own rule about not giving fantasy monsters muscles like Mr. Universe.

this seems as good a time as any to throw in my completely unsolicited two cents on the age old question of "do balrogs have wings?" I tend to lean slightly toward "no," at least in what I imagine to be Tolkien's intention. No indication is ever given of balrogs being able to fly (actually two of the most iconic balrog-related scenes involve them falling from great heights). At the same time, well… winged balrogs look F***ing cool. The wings help to visually sell that classic "fallen angel" identity, and a lot of the wingless depictions of balrogs end up looking like they're missing something. fortunately, this bust cuts off before I would have had to seriously address the issue, but I made it with an eye to being able to work and look good either way, with that huge bull neck and flaring traps (always an intimidating feature on their own) looking like they could, if need be, support what would would essentially be two pairs of shoulders.