June 17, 2002

Balrogs and Nazgul
Loremaster

First of all when i referred to the nazgul letting the Hobbits go, you must realize that the call of the ring would have taken compleate controll over the nazgul's mind and his mission was to infact get the ring. Water would not have stoped a spirit whos main drive was right in front of him. He wouldn't care if he was unhorsed or unclothed. He would stopped the ring from moving any farther and pinpointed the location for Sauron.

Now on the Balrog. Balrogs and all evil things were controlled by thier masters will, (Just as Richard P. has said). The reason the orcs scattered was because of the fear, note they also scatered when the nazgul approached. Also note that the orcs also put a slab ofer the crack in the floor of the mine, and then the Balrog crossed over. Also I think That Sauron left The Balrog there. Obveously he didnt trust the orcs, also. A bunch of orcs could not have held off the dwarves and the party and have maintained a presence without a leader or a powereful warior with them. Also i think that had it not been there there would be an easy way to reach Lothlorien. Also I think that keeping a balrog close to Orthanc may keep Sauraman a little more in check than orcs would (note Sauramans orcs were stronger than Sauron's).

Also i think this religeon thing is a little stupid. Tolkien said that these books were not to be taken as anything beyond the story that they were.