Balrog - The Truth About Balrogs

Balrogs in Middle-earth

Balrog - A Balrog is a fallen spirit, one of the Maiar, who entered into Ëa to assist the Valar in ordering and governing the universe that is Time and Space. When Melkor (later called Morgoth by the Elves), most powerful of the Valar, rebelled against their purpose and Ilûvatar himself, many of the Maiaric spirits joined his cause. Among the greatest of his servants were the Balrogs, called Valaraukar in Quenya. The name means "demons of might".

Like Melkor, the Balrogs developed an affinity for fire and darkness. They took terrible man-like shapes but cloaked themselves in a malleable darkness or unlight. Their physical bodies were not normal flesh-and-blood husks like the Children of Ilûvatar possessed (and which some of the Valar and Maiar made for themselves). The Balrogs snorted flames and their dark mane-like appendages could burst into flame. Gandalf called their fiery emanations a "dark fire", and it may be this dark fire was equivalent to an unfire.

Gothmog ("voice of Morgoth"?) was the leader of the Balrogs and one of Melkor's chief lieutenants. Gothmog led several of Morgoth's armies in the Wars of Beleriand, which lasted throughout the years of the First Age of the Sun. Gothmog was finally overthrown during the battle for Gondolin. By the end of the First Age, only one Balrog survived. This lone creature fled the drowning Beleriand and made its way to a cavern deep beneath the mountains near Khazad-dum, the huge Dwarf-kingdom later named Moria ("dark pit") by the Elves. There the Balrog slept until it was wakened in the Third Age.

Roused by Dwarves tunneling deep under the mountains, the Balrog destroyed their civilization and drove the survivors out of the Misty Mountains. For several centuries it dwelt either alone or only accompanied by Orcs and Trolls. When the Dwarves fought a final battle with the Orcs in 2799, the Balrog's presence alone was sufficient to prevent the Dwarves from reclaiming Moria for their own. It would not be until 3018, when Gandalf led the Fellowship of the Ring into Moria, that the Balrog would finally be defeated.

Himself one of the loyal Maiar, Gandalf was a messenger sent to Middle-earth to aid the Free Peoples in their resistance against the resurgence of Sauron, another of Morgoth's former lieutenants who had been overthrown at the end of the Second Age. Gandalf discovered and confronted the Balrog, allowing it to draw him into a mortal duel so that the remaining members of his company could escape with the One Ring. Gandalf fought the Balrog for eleven days before they slew each other.

Balrogs in Tolkien's Mythologies

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote several mythologeis during the course of his life. His first mythology, The Book of Lost Tales, was intended to be a mythology for England. Although Tolkien never finished this mythology, it included his first conception of Balrogs. In the mythology for England, Balrogs were terrible creatures, perhaps numbering 1,000, who rode into battle on the backs of metal dragons or other beasts. These Balrogs were slain in great numbers by the Elves who fought against Melko, the evil god.

Tolkien began working on The Book of Lost Tales in 1916 but by 1925 he had abandoned it and begun work on a new mythology. He eventually called this new mythology The Silmarillion, and he brought the Balrogs forward to be the servants of Morgoth. These new Balrogs were basically the same as the original Balrogs of the first mythology, The Book of Lost Tales.

In 1937 Tolkien published The Hobbit, which became an immediate best seller. When his publisher asked Tolkien to write a sequel, he reluctantly set about constructing a new story about Hobbits. Instead, he wrote The Lord of the Rings, and at one point he decided that his heroes should encounter a Balrog. But after writing the passage once using a Balrog from the first two mythologies, Tolkien redesigned the Balrogs to become the horrific demons of fire and darkness that have become familiar to readers of The Lord of the Rings. Some time later, Tolkien decided there could not have been hundreds or even thousands of such creatures. He ultimately decided there should have been no more than seven of them.

Do Balrogs have wings?

One of the most confusing issues regarding the Balrog of The Lord of the Rings is whether it possesses true wings. According to the text, the Balrog when it first appears is surrounded by a darkness that makes the creature's body difficult to see. The narrative compares the darkness to a shadow, and later says the shadow reaches "out like two vast wings", and finally says that the darkness grows and the wings are "spread from wall to wall". The Balrog thus, through its dark emanation, assumes a size of immense proportions relative to the stature of the members of the Fellowship of the Ring.

Some readers, misunderstanding Tolkien's use of the word "wings" to refer to the extension of the darkness to either side of the Balrog, argue that they must be "figurative" or "metaphorical". The wings are by no means metaphorical, however, as their appearance is described in such a way that the reader is meant to understand that the characters in the story itself see them. But they may correctly be described as "figurative" if only because the word "wing" or "wings" can refer to extensions of any object that jut out to two sides, such as the wings of an airplane, the wings of a building, wings on a helmet, etc. Such wings are not "real" in the sense of biological appendages which would be used for flight.

Do Balrogs fly?

The question of whether Balrogs could fly arises directly from the Balrog wings debate. If the Balrog had wings, some people wonder, then why did it not use them to fly up out of the chasm after Gandalf broke the bridge? However, if one assumes for the sake of discussion that the wings are sufficient enough to carry a Balrog through the air, the wings are nonetheless so large and the hall is described as being obstructed by immense pillars, that it should be virtually impossible for any creature of such a size to fly anywhere within the hall with fully extended wings. So the question assumes conditions contrary to those established by the narrative.

But some people insist that if the Balrog had wings capable of flight, then it should have saved itself when it fell from the mountaintop. Or, rather, if the Balrog were simply capable of flight -- with or without wings -- why did it not fly away when Gandalf cast it down? Again, this question assumes conditions that are contrary to those established by the narrative. When Gandalf tells Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli that he "cast down [his] enemy, and in his ruin he smote the mountainside", he means only that the dead (or dying) body of the Balrog struck the mountainside. Tolkien used exactly this kind of language to describe the deaths of two dragons: Ancalagon the Black (slain by Ëarendil in the First Age) and Smaug (slain by Bard the Bowman). Since neither dragon attempted to save itself from smiting the ground "in its ruin", the reader should understand that a creature in such a state is incapable of taking any further action. It is either dead or dying.

But some people also point to a passage in The Silmarillion where it is said that as Glaurung ran across Ard-Galen, Balrogs followed in his train -- that is, they seem to be running on the ground. However, analysis of the passage has shown that it was contrived by Christopher Tolkien and does not depict the scene as written by J.R.R. Tolkien, whose last description of Glaurung's charge omits all mention of the Balrogs.

Finally, some people argue that the Balrogs cannot fly because those who believe they can misinterpret Tolkien's use of "winged speed" in another Silmarillion passage often referred to as "the Hithlum passage", in which Tolkien wrote: "swiftly they arose, and passing with winged speed over Hithlum came to Lammoth as a tempest of fire". The crucial part of this passage is "tempest of fire", which implies that the flaming Balrogs descended out of the sky. In all his published works, Tolkien only used "tempest of flame" in one other passage, where he described a similar flight of winged dragons as they attacked the army of the Valar at the end of the First Age.

The arguments against winged, flying Balrogs are thus based on misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and false assumptions. But there are many arguments in favor of winged, flying Balrogs that are also based on misunderstanding and misinterpretation. The wings should not be viewed as anything more than the insubstantial darkness that surrounds the Balrog of Moria, most likely used to project an overwhelmingly dreadful image to its enemies. In fact, later in the story the Company of the Ring encounters another creature surrounded by darkness -- one of the Nazgul, flying on a winged creature at night. Legolas shoots down the winged steed but Gimli is so stricken with fear and awe he is reminded of the Balrog.

It should be evident to the careful reader that a Balrog does not need wings to fly. The power of the Balrog's flight is not explained by the narrative, but its Maiaric nature is sufficient to empower it. Some people argue for convenience' sake that the Balrog must have lost this power, but as there is nothing in the narratives to suggest the Balrogs have been diminished so much, that is just wishful thinking. Rather, the Balrogs may have lost some of their ability due to the effects of their corruption, but given that the Balrog of Moria was able to survive the collapse of many tons of stone that would have crushed an ordinary, living creature, its power seems to be sufficiently attested in the narrative.

Finally, some people argue that if the Balrog truly did have the power to fly, then it should have abandoned Gandalf in the chasm and gone after Frodo and the One Ring. This argument fails for more than one reason. First, at no point in the story does Tolkien suggest that the Balrog was either aware of or interested in Frodo and the Ring. Second, given that Gandalf had already demonstrated considerable power twice, the Balrog would have been leaving itself exposed to its most deadly enemy had it simply tried to bypass him. It makes no sense for the Balrog to ignore Gandalf in a desperate bid to grab Frodo and the Ring. The Balrog had to deal with Gandalf first, who had identified himself as "a servant of the Secret Fire" and a "wielder of the Flame of Anor". The Balrog knew it faced no mortal man but rather one of its own kind: a Maiaric spirit of considerable power.

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