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The fact that he'd never actually been to Lorien before would indicate that he hadn't been around for most of the Third Age. But suffice it to say he had been alive for centuries. In the conversations of the three hunters it is indicated that though Legolas is several times older than Aragorn, he has ironically not travelled anywhere near as much.
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I agree that it's apparent that he is not very well traveled, but isn't it strange that he was able to identify crebain out of Dunland from a long distance? Doesn't seem likely that he would be shocked by the trees and Ents of Fangorn yet be familiar with crebain.
Oh well. I guess even Tolkien makes mistakes sometimes. Which may acount for the fact that Legolas was able to identify the Balrog before any of the rest of the Company.
You know, it may just be that no one who ever encountered the Balrog in Khazad-dum ever lived to describe it, leaving it's true nature a bit of a mystery. So Gimli would only know it as a great evil. Aragorn can't be expected to know everything about everything - he does spend a great deal of his life traveling, not studying ancient bad guys. Gandalf knows what they are but has never actually seen one, so even when he sets his eyes on it he may not know exactly what it is. Only an elf would have such a vivid understanding of Balrogs that he might know it from the feel and sight of it. It would certainly be the greatest evil he had ever encountered, it's shadow and flame, it's got a whip (it's got wings [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ). What else would he think it was? Any halfway educated elf would know it was a Balrog, even a relatively young one from Greenwood.