Here's a curious factoid I hadn't appreciated until recently: Reading LOTR one get the impression that the Balrog was already in residence in Khazad-Dum before the Dwarves. Turns out this isn't so, since reference is made in the Silmarillion to the great fortress of the dwarves in the Misty Mountains, from which the dwarvish cities in the Blue Mountains during the First Age were settled. Of course, the Balrog (we assume) didn't flee to the vicinity of Khazad-dum until the War of Wrath at the very end of the First Age. So how and why did the Balrog end up in the immediate vicinity of the only dwarvish habitation for hundreds of miles, without anyone noticing? Maybe he was fond of Mithril too, or he made some kind of deal with Sauron?
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