>>8029324>>8029330>>8029441Okay, okay, let's go to the tape:
>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.[...]
>His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings.[...]
>The fire in it seemed to die, but the darkness grew. It stepped forward slowly on to the bridge, and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall; but still Gandalf could be seen, glimmering in the gloom; he seemed small, and altogether alone: grey and bent, like a wizened tree before the onset of a storm.[...]
>With a terrible cry the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow plunged down and vanished.It seems to me that these passages taken together only describe a supernatural shadow/darkness/gloom that the creature projects. The second reference to "wings" is a callback to the first, which is clearly a simile.