Puzzle Description:

The Balrog from Lord of the Rings.

#1: Mark Conger (aruba) on Mar 30, 2004

Phew! It's Huge! A good picture.

Actually a pretty easy puzzle, aside from the sheer size.

This is much easier now that one can hold down the mouse button and paint a big area. It still takes a while, though.

This is my first puzzle solved on this site. I did find it rather simple to start off, as the two sides were easy to fill as well as the top-middle area. It got a little trickier towards the bottom-middle.

Phew... looots of filling pixels.
For a long time i thought it was an elephant.

I now think it looks like a monster in DOOM.

Excellent puzzle! Really enjoyed it.

To me it looks like a grizzly bear with wings.

But *do* Balrogs really have wings? :)

Uh, probably not, but they often look like they do, so we're OK.

zblocker, are those even wings, or is it just wing-shaped scenery in the background? :)

Nice picture. Lots of filling in which takes time, but great image.

To me it looks like a Ganon with wings, from the legend of zelda on nintento, just the same a very fun puzzle, thxs.

THE IMAGE LOOKS LIKE A BAT

Marking either end of some of the longer clues and then using the V and H functions helps with filling in some of the longer clues.

Nice puzzle and fun to solve.

Cool puzzle.

"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..."

Except why did it fall into the chasm when Gandalf broke the bridge, if it actually had wings? Why walk across the bridge at all instead of flying across?

Before the quote you mention, it says "the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings."

So I'm inclined to think the wings mentioned in the text are mere metaphorical wings, extensions of it's cloak of smoke and shadow, not actual physical wings. That's why I said "probably not, but they often look like they do" in response #9.

Ah, okay.

Maybe it evolved from an ostrich and can't actually fly - after all, that's a pretty thick body to get off the ground (assuming the movie depiction is accurate)

Looking at the face, I thought it was the head of a puppy, with long floppy ears. I honestly don't remember what the Balrog looked like, so I still think it kinda looks like a puppy. :)

Interesting. I am getting replies to this triggered on my forum list, but it doesn't remember me solving this puzzle four years ago.

I had noticed the same thing with many of the earlier puzzles that I KNOW I had solved (and commented on) that later showed up as unsolved. I asked Jan about it, but he said there was no problem with his program that would have caused it. I wonder if it is a cookies thing?

I doubt it is cookies as mine get cleared all the time. I have also noticed this on occasion.

Very nice! Fun solve.

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