The Balrog vs The Witch King

[davem]

Originally Posted by Raynor

He didn't break the door of a hobbit shack. The context in which this occurs makes this one the (if not the) most powerful displays of magic power in the book.

Oh its spectacular, & its symbolic, but is it actually all that big a deal in terms of power needed? When we're talking about magic it becomes more complex - it may take no more magic to shatter a city gate than to break a sword. And I keep coming back to the battering ram - could he have shattered the gate without Grond? One can't dismiss the Ram because of the time taken in its forging & the effort expended in dragging it all the way from Mordor. Why bother if the WK can just shatter the gate unaided? And even if he could we have no evidence that he couldn't do something like that without 'added demonic force'. All we know is that he's never shown doing something exactly like that before - but we're never shown Gandalf doing anything like killing a Balrog before, & we don't look for 'added spiritual power' to explain that. And let's not forget that Frodo's sword was a Barrow Blade - a 'magical' object bound about with spells - while the gate was just a gate. It may well have take more power to break the sword than the gate.

What else did he do in the battle to display this extra power? Nothing that I can see.