Editing Balrog (section)

=== Old Norse, Old English ===

A real-world etymological counterpart for the word "Balrog" existed long before Tolkien's languages, in [[Norse mythology]]; an epithet of the [[Norse god]] [[Odin]] was ''Báleygr'', "fire-eyed".<ref>''[[Grímnismál]]'', stanzas 46-48</ref>

Joe Abbott, writing in ''[[Mythlore]]'', notes that the Old Norse ''[[Voluspa]]'' mentions that the fire-demon [[Surt (mythology)|Surt]] carries both a sword and a ''sviga laevi'', a deadly whipping-stick or switch; he suggests that it is "a short step" from that to the Balrog's flaming whip.<ref name="Abbott 1989"/> Abbott makes a connection, too, with the ''Beowulf'' poet's account of the monster [[Grendel]]: he notes that Tolkien wrote that Grendel was "physical enough in form and power, but vaguely felt as belonging to a different order of being, one allied to the malevolent 'ghosts' of the dead", and compares this with Aragorn's description of the Balrog as "both a shadow and a flame, strong and terrible".<ref name="Abbott 1989"/>