June 11, 2002

Re: Balrogs
Richard P.

To Arina... yes, thats exactly what I was trying to say. That unless a Balrog is threatened or told to do something it won't. This is clearly subservience to a greater will.

It always seemed strange to me that if the Balrog was very intelligent, or even capable of having desires of its own, why hadn't it gone out and taken over Lorien or attacked Isengard or Rohan, or even Gondor. It is blatently obvious that the Balrog, if it were capable of raising an independant army of Orcs could, with its strength and power overthrow one of these places at least, if not all. The fact that it didn't points towards, if not shows, that the Balrog is basically useless, unless there is someone there telling him what to do, or there is a threat to itself. When that happens, its a very useful creature.

Also I think that the argument that the Balrog was not woken by Gandalf's magic has one major flaw. The person said that whenever the Dwarves tried to re-occupy Moria the Balrog came and killed them. Yet it is only ever stated once that the Balrog attacked the dwarves... that is that the Balrog is Durin's Bane... and so must have killed Durin. The only other time the Balrog is hinted at being there is when the Dwarves go back to Moria to take revenge on the Orcs. They never actaully go into Moria then either, and the Balrog is never actaully seen, nor is it said that Durin's Bane was present. When the Dwarf colony at the time of the War of the Ring is wipped out there is also no evidence that the Balrog was involved, just Orcs.