June 11, 2002

Demon of Might
Brett C.

Once again I find myself wading into controversy concerning the Balrog. Was there ever a Tolkien character more aptly described; shadowy, changing, hard to make out clearly yet clearly compelling.

First with regards to intelligence, I beleive the demon is clever, for reasons aptly covered by others [the counterspell etc] so I won't go too heavily into that. As for the arguement about if it were intelligent it would have been more active and left Moria, I need some help here. I do recall reading SOMEWHERE that shortly after the Balrog awakened and Galadriel came to Lorien to replace its lost sovreigns Amroth and Nimrodel [who fled with many others because of the awakened terror]that 'Galadriel put forth her power, and the Balrog retreated into the depths of the Earth.' This would explain its lack of motivation wihtout limiting its intelligence. The problem is I have been searching but cannot find the reference. Any help?

The other thing was I agree with Paul's first article that says the Balrog would have takent the ring and used it. Saruman certainly would have, and he was also a Maia. Maybe another reason the Balrog is not commanded by Sauron is that he can't control it; at least not from a distance. He can only do that with Saruman because of the palantir, and not entirely successfully anyway, because Saruman also plays his own game.

The Balrog is described by Legolas as the greatest Elf-bane short of Sauron himself, so I think it would not naturally bow to his dominion without a struggle - evil types don't play team sports like that, they only bend to greater force. Even Sauron's orcs hate him and only bend to his will because they fear the consequences [see the talk between Shagrat and Gorbag in TTT if you have doubts]. I think the Balrog would feel the same way, and would only have done the Dark Lord's will if he turned up and laid the smack down, which he was too preoccupied to do, and content that the demon was serving his purposes anyway. The Balrog with the ring - heck yeah, he'd have taken it, and gone after the top spot at Barad-dur. Don't mistake mystery for lack on intelligence. Just because the Balrog doesn't have the elloquent nature of Smaug in the Hobbit and brag about his schemes doesn't mean he doesn't have any.