[Arvegil145]

Oh boy, kicking another hornet's nest...


The reason, I think, that Tolkien changed 'Balrog' to 'Demon' in his 'Last Writings' is that, the Balrogs being very few in number in the later mythos, he wanted to have their deaths be special, extraordinary events.

Since I'm about 99% sure that Tolkien, even on his wildest days, wouldn't dare to change the death of Gothmog by Ecthelion's hand (or rather, his helmet), I think the answer to the above dilemma is pretty simple: Tolkien simply thought that having one Balrog (the Lord of Balrogs even!) killed by an Elf was more than enough, and that adding another Balrog death (much less two as in 'The New Silmarillion'!) was too much.


Not to mention that it gets repetitive:

1) A Balrog (Gothmog) is killed by an Elf (Ecthelion), and the Elf is killed in the process

2) Another (unnamed) Balrog is killed by an Elf (Glorfindel), and the Elf is killed in the process

and in 'The New Silmarillion' at least

3) Yet another (unnamed) Balrog is killed by an Elf/Elves (Rog and co.), and the Elf is killed in the process (well, soon enough, at any rate)


I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this - it is awfully repetitive, and Tolkien would've no doubt noticed this pattern, and changed it to avoid repetition, as well as bringing it in line with the 'maximum 7 Balrogs' idea.


I think that we should adopt the 'Balrog' > 'Demon' change in the case of Glorfindel, and I also propose that we adopt this change in regards to Rog's and the House of the Hammer of Wrath's sally (with the necessary adjustments).