Balrog

Ballrogs are the dread demon servants of Melkor. Balrogs originated as Maiar, beings of the same kind as Sauron himself. They are primordial spirits of fire that had allied themselves with Melkor in ancient times, and became the most feared of his servants, especially during the Wars of Beleriand in the First Age. Details of their numbers are hard to state with certainty, but there seem to have been relatively few of them - probably no more than seven.

Appearance
In appearance, the Balrogs are man-like, though huge, and could appear cloaked in shadow as an impenetrable darkness, or burst into a fiery form that streamed flame. They carried whips of flame and can move with great speed, inducing terror in friends and foes alike. In the War of Wrath, Morgoth was assailed by the forces of the Valar. Most of the Balrogs were destroyed in that War, but some few escaped over the Blue Mountains and hid in Middle-earth. Durin’s Bane, the creature that drove the Dwarves from Moria, was one of these.

Though Balrogs are spirits of fire, they can shroud themselves entirely in darkness and shadow. The Balrog that Gandalf fought in Moria, for example, at first gave no hint of his fiery nature apart from the flames that issued from his nostrils.

Though the favoured weapon of the Balrog is a whip of flame, there are records of these beings using other weapons. Some carry a blade of flame, while others used a whip-like thong of steel. Gothmog, the Lord of Balrogs, armed himself in yet another way, carrying a great black axe into battle. The Balrogs also appear to have a mastery over some magical arts (we have only a single recorded case of such a power, the use of a counter-spell against another of their own order, but the power of that counter-spell was apparently immense).

The name Balrog was given to these beings by the Elves. The word is Sindarin, equivalent to Quenya. It contains the elements bal-, “power, might” and -raug a fearsome or dangerous monster or demon, and is generally translated “demon of might.” The name these beings gave to themselves - if indeed such a name existed - is nowhere recorded.

Origins
Melkor corrupted these spirits of fire to his service in the distant past of the World, in the days of his splendour. They were originally gathered by him in his ancient fastness of Utumno during the time of the Lamps of the Valar, and according to some accounts played a part in the Battle of the Powers in which the Valar attacked that fortress. When Utumno was destroyed by the Valar, at least some fled and lurked in the pits of Angband (whether any of the original Balrogs were slain in the Valar’s attack on Utumno is not known).

After Morgoth’s Return
When Melkor (afterwards known as Morgoth) and Ungoliant escaped from Valinor three ages later with the Silmarils, the Balrogs were still to be found in the ruins of Angband. Ungoliant trapped Melkor in her webs, demanding the Silmarils for herself, but the Balrogs issued from their hiding-place and rescued their lord.

The Balrogs were apparently first encountered by the Elves during the Dagor-nuin-Giliath in the years before the first rising of the Sun. After the great victory of the Noldor over Morgoth's Orcs, Fëanor pressed on towards Angband, but the Balrogs came against him. He was mortally wounded by Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs. Though his sons beat off the demons of fire, Fëanor died of his wounds, and his spirit departed for the Halls of Mandos.

Soon afterwards, Fëanor’s eldest son Maedhros was captured by a force from Angband, and there were known to be Balrogs among their number. After Maedhros’ rescue by Fingon, the Balrogs seem to have languished in Angband for many years - at least, we hear no more of them until long afterwards.

Their sudden re-emergence was as spectacular as it was destructive: nearly four centuries after they were last seen, they burst out of Angband, following the Dragon Glaurung among the rivers of fire and flame sent out from Thangorodrim. This cataclysm was the great Dagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame in which Morgoth freed himself from the Siege of Angband. Though the battle was undoubtedly a victory for Morgoth, the Balrogs were less successful in their part. At least some of them were sent to invade the land of Hithlum, but they were repulsed by the defenders of the Mountains of Shadow.

They were more deadly in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, where Morgoth held them in reserve until the last moment. When they were released from Angband, they helped to turn the tide of battle. In particular, Gothmog their Lord and another Balrog succeeded in slaying High King Fingon of the Noldor. After that awful battle, the armies of Elves and Men were scattered or destroyed, and Morgoth's victory was almost overwhelming.

Fingon’s brother Turgon escaped from the Nirnaeth with his host, and so his city of Gondolin was one of the few Elf-realms to survive the Year of Lamentation. It remained hidden for a few brief decades, but some thirty years after Turgon’s escape, he was betrayed, and Morgoth sent his forces to destroy the [[Hidden City. There were Balrogs with this host, too. The Lord of Balrogs, Gothmog, met his end in Gondolin at the hands of Ecthelion, though Ecthelion was also slain in their encounter. Tuor and Idril led many away from the sack of the city, only to find another Balrog awaiting them in the mountains. That Balrog, too, was defeated by a great hero - Glorfindel - and though he defeated that Balrog, Glorfindel was also destroyed.

After the Fall of Gondolin, no more is said of the Balrogs until the War of Wrath that brought the First Age to a close. In that battle, unforeseen by Morgoth, the Valar loosed their power on Angband. The Dark Lord and his armies were crushed, and the Balrogs were almost all destroyed. At least one survived, fleeing eastward and southward from the destruction of Beleriand to hide beneath the Misty Mountains, where it would sleep undisturbed for thousands of years. A handful of others, too, seem to have escaped the wreck of Angband to hide far beneath the earth, but their fate remains a mystery.

Durin’s Bane
The Balrog that had fled to hide beneath the Misty Mountains found its way to the depths under the Mountains of Moria, and there it slumbered. More than five millennia passed, wars were fought, and kingdoms rose and fell in the lands above as the Balrog lay quiet beneath the earth. As the Third Age drew on, Sauron raised the tower of Dol Guldur nearby to the east, and this perhaps brought the Balrog back towards wakefulness. Then, in the fateful year of III 1980, the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm delved down into the roots of the mountains, seeking mithril, to come across the stirring demon and release it back into the World.

Though we have only bare facts about the events that followed, it seems that the Balrog must have rampaged through Khazad-dûm. The then King, Durin VI, was slain by it almost immediately, and thus the Balrog of Moria became known as Durin’s Bane. The Dwarves did not immediately abandon their home, and some survived until the following year, but in III 1981 Durin’s heir Náin I was also killed. At that time the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm fled the mansions they had founded thousands of years earlier. The darkened halls thus became indeed Moria, the Black Chasm. The emergence of the Balrog had wider implications, too: down the valley of the Silverlode in Lórien, many Elves also fled. This exodus included the Lord of Lórien, Amroth, and so the land was left leaderless until the coming of Galadriel and Celeborn.

After this time the Balrog remained apparently quiescent within Moria for centuries. This may be due to Sauron’s lost influence; just a few decades after Durin’s Bane awoke, Sauron was driven from Dol Guldur for a prolonged period. We know that the Nazgûl remained inert during this Watchful Peace, so perhaps the same was true for the Balrog of Moria. This period lasted for some four centuries, but soon after Sauron’s return he began to send more of his creatures to join Durin’s Bane within the old Dwarf-city.

In the Battle of Azanulbizar of III 2799, the young Dáin Ironfoot glimpsed Durin’s Bane lurking within Moria, and the horror of the Balrog prevented the Dwarves from recolonising their old mansions after their victory. Nearly two hundred years later, Balin led an attempt to refound Khazad-dûm. That attempt ended in disaster for the Dwarves, though it is unclear whether Durin’s Bane played any direct part in the destruction of the ill-fated Dwarf colony.

The next and final definite sighting of Durin’s Bane was in January III 3019, twenty-five years after the failure of Balin’s colony. At this time the Fellowship of the Ring made their way through Moria as a means of crossing the Misty Mountains, and there they encountered not only the creatures of Sauron, but ultimately the Balrog. There it was challenged by one of its order, a fellow Maia in the form of the Wizard Gandalf. In the battle that followed both Balrog and Wizard fell into the depths beneath Moria, but continued their conflict for days, up the Endless Stair within the Mountains until they emerged on the peak of the Silvertine. There at last Gandalf was victorious in the Battle of the Peak, casting down a being that had existed in Arda since its most ancient times.

It is far from certain that Durin’s Bane was the last of the Balrogs. Indeed, we’re told that after Morgoth’s defeat it was only one of “some few that fled and hid themselves in caverns inaccessible at the roots of the earth” (Quenta Silmarillion 24, Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath). None of these other Balrogs are ever mentioned in records, but the implication is that some few remained after the end of the Third Age, concealed in deep places, perhaps to be awakened in ages to come.

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