That’s true in a trivial sense: there’s no law of nature that enforces verisimilitude in any work of fiction. However, most authors aim for verisimilitude, and the good ones achieve it. I’m not talking about the top speeds of balrogs because I think there’s some objective answer, but rather because I think that Tolkein does achieve verisimilitude (at least in some regards) and therefore there is a foundation for discussing the traits of his fictional beings. He easily could have given balrogs rocket skates, but he didn’t.
No, in the whole sense. It could very easily be interpreted that He gave Baal-rogs what would in modern days be described as a ‘jetpack’. 2 flames jutting out from the rear. Baal-rog is dark-speech for “breaks sound barrier”. We are talking about supernatural creatures that by definition transcend expectations and as such verisimilitude doesn’t apply.
That’s true in a trivial sense: there’s no law of nature that enforces verisimilitude in any work of fiction. However, most authors aim for verisimilitude, and the good ones achieve it. I’m not talking about the top speeds of balrogs because I think there’s some objective answer, but rather because I think that Tolkein does achieve verisimilitude (at least in some regards) and therefore there is a foundation for discussing the traits of his fictional beings. He easily could have given balrogs rocket skates, but he didn’t.
No, in the whole sense. It could very easily be interpreted that He gave Baal-rogs what would in modern days be described as a ‘jetpack’. 2 flames jutting out from the rear. Baal-rog is dark-speech for “breaks sound barrier”. We are talking about supernatural creatures that by definition transcend expectations and as such verisimilitude doesn’t apply.
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