Balrogs

Origin

The Balrogs, called Valaraukar in Quenya, were Maiar of fire whom Melkor corrupted in the earliest days of the World, when his splendour was still great enough to draw other spirits to him. Once his, they became demons of terror, cloaked in shadow and streaming with flame, and they remained his most faithful servants through every age of his war against the Valar. Because they were of the same order of being as the Valar's own people, no Elf or Man could truly master them; only the greatest lords of the Noldor ever slew one, and always at the cost of their own lives.

Appearance and powers

A Balrog appears as a great shape of man-like form, but larger, wrapped in a darkness that seems to spread about it like wings or a cloud. Fire runs in its mane and pours from its nostrils, and its usual weapon is a many-thonged whip of flame, though the one in Moria also carried a blade. Their shadow could quench light, and their heat could melt weapons. They wielded fear as a weapon: the Orcs of Angband were driven by them as much as led. When Ungoliant, having devoured the light of the Two Trees, tried to consume Melkor himself, it was the Balrogs who answered his cry, streaming from the ruins of Angband to drive her off with their whips.

The number of Balrogs is not given in the published texts. The Silmarillion speaks of them as a host at the Dagor Bragollach and the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, but the accounts that survive in Unfinished Tales and the later writings suggest they were few, perhaps no more than seven, and that their terror lay in their power rather than their numbers.

In the Wars of Beleriand

When Melkor returned to Middle-earth with the Silmarils, the Balrogs were the first of his old servants to rejoin him. Their captain, Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, was also high captain of Angband. In the Dagor-nuin-Giliath, the first battle after the Noldor's landing, Gothmog led the Balrogs against Fëanor and gave him his death-wound. In the Dagor Bragollach the Balrogs marched with Glaurung through the flames that broke the Siege of Angband. In the Nirnaeth Arnoediad Gothmog killed Fingon, High King of the Noldor, and took Húrin alive. At the Fall of Gondolin two Balrogs died: Gothmog was slain by Ecthelion of the Fountain, who died with him, and another was thrown down from the Cirith Thoronath by Glorfindel, who likewise perished.

In the War of Wrath that ended the First Age the Balrogs were destroyed almost entirely. A few escaped the ruin of Angband and hid themselves in caverns at the roots of the earth, where they lay dormant for thousands of years.

Durin's Bane

One such fugitive sheltered beneath the Misty Mountains. In T.A. 1980 the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm, mining ever deeper for mithril, broke into its resting place and roused it. It slew King Durin VI and his son Náin I, and the Dwarves fled their greatest mansion, which became Moria, the Black Pit. The Balrog was known afterwards only as Durin's Bane. Orcs gathered around it, and Balin's attempt to recolonise Moria in T.A. 2989 ended in massacre.

In January 3019 the Fellowship of the Ring passed through Moria and the Balrog came against them at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. Gandalf held the bridge and broke it, but the Balrog's whip dragged him down. Through the deeps and up the Endless Stair to the summit of Zirakzigil the two fought, and at last Gandalf cast the Balrog down the mountainside and died himself. With its death the last of the known Balrogs was gone.

Nature

Balrogs stand apart from the other monsters of the Enemy because they were not bred or made but chose their allegiance. They are fallen angels rather than beasts, which is why the texts always treat their appearance as something close to the presence of Morgoth himself. The heat of their spirits eventually consumed their bodies' freedom of form: they could no longer take fair shapes, and the destruction of the body was, it seems, the end of the Balrog as an active power in the world, though as a Maia its spirit could not die.

A Balrog is a towering, man-shaped being of shadow and fire. Its body seems to be made of darkness that has caught alight: flame runs along its limbs and in its mane, and a cloud of shadow spreads out from it and can grow to fill a hall. It carries a whip of many thongs of fire and sometimes a sword of flame. Its approach is announced by the terror it spreads and by a dimming of light, and its bellow is louder than any beast. When destroyed, the fire dies and only a broken, blackened form remains.

The Balrogs had no culture of their own; they were the officers and shock troops of Angband, commanding Orcs and wolves and forming the personal guard of Melkor. Gothmog held the rank of high captain over all his master's armies. They answered to Melkor alone and remained with him to the end, unlike Sauron, who fled and made his own way. After the First Age the survivors lived alone in the deep places, and Durin's Bane in Moria seems to have been served but not truly commanded by the Orcs who gathered there.

In the first days of Arda, while the Valar laboured to shape the World, Melkor drew into his service many Maiar, especially spirits of fire, whose nature made them susceptible to his own fiery splendour. These became the Balrogs. They fought for him in the wars of the Lamps and in Utumno, and when he was captured after the Battle of the Powers they hid in the deep vaults of Angband and awaited his return.

Most of the Balrogs were slain in the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age. The few who escaped hid at the roots of the mountains. One was roused by the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm in T.A. 1980 and reigned there as Durin's Bane until Gandalf destroyed it in T.A. 3019. No other Balrog is known to have survived into the Fourth Age.