Hot, crispy nice hobbit:
I think you misunderstand one thing about Durin's Bane, which is that no one knew what the terror was the moria held. Everyone called it Durin's Bane and everyone knew that it held a power too great for the dwarves of old.
Ofcourse Gandalf knew this as well, and he is not pleased to enter khazad-dum again. At the door which bursts into splinters he says that he had met his equal and didn't know what it was, but at the bridge he knows and understands what happened in moria.
The fact that no one knew that Durin's Bane was in fact a Balrog is in fact underlined by a statement of Celeborn when the other 8 of the Fellowship meet him and Galadriel at Caras Galadon. He says:
Quote:
'Alas! We long have feared that under Caradhras a terror slept. but had I known that the Dwarves had stirred up this evil in Moria again, I would have forbidden you to pass the northern borders, you and all that went with you.'
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Concluding that Gandalf couldn't have known about the Balrog, but knew about Durin's Bane, it is very unlikely to say that he didn't have foresight. I think he had and he had many powers beside. Does he not save the quest at Amon Hen and call Shadowfax to Fangorn forest when he is in the south in Rohan. Also he shows foresight when the battle of Helm's Deep is about to begin. 'Meet me at dawn of the (I believe) 5th day'.
greetings,
lathspell