The Route of the Ring

[Raynor]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

What I do think is that Gandalf knew full well what lived in Moria and that he had a good feeling that if he passed that way he would have to face this foe. This is why, in my opinion, he was procrastinating both before and during the journey through the mines.

I agree with Legate. With him were not only hobbits that he loved, future rulers of the kindreds of Men, Elves and Dwarves, and the hoped-for king of Gondor - but also the One Ring that had to be destroyed, not lost or handed over to some other evil power. I see no reason why he would have led them on a collision course with the balrog, as any other route would have been better than this rather suicidal one. Furthermore, if he knew beforehand what was in Moria, he would have most likely did his best to make this knowledge as public as possible - as there was no confidentiality agreement between him and Sauron & co, quite the contrary, according to his mission.