How did a Balrog get beneath Moria and when?

[Kuruharan]

Durin's Bane would have to be quite an extreme individualist with a bad morale, no connections to others (that he would just bury himself while still hundreds of Balrogs were alive and well, and never attempted to go out to look for them, especially after Morgoth's return, seems most unlikely and weird).

I don't know. Given the general dispotion of the Forces of Evil, I'd say having the instincts you set out would be an excellent way to survive. Look how Sauron ended up in the First Age.

The Balrog was probably not aware that the dwarves were in the area at all.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Cirdan

Could it be possible that this Balrog was a refugee from that conflict, taking flight and hiding under the Misty Mountains before even the Dwarves founded Moria?

No– at least not if we go by the Silmarillion– Morgoth "reared the threefold peaks of Thangorodrim" above Angband only after his return to Middle-earth.

[Nerwen]

As for the question of how the Balrog entered Moria and why, you may want to have a look at this thread.

[Morthoron]

There are no such things as Balrogs. Only wings.

[alatar]

I know that some Balrog ingress options were covered in the following thread:

Balrog breaking and entering.

OOps! Nerwen already beat me to it.

[Inziladun]

I still think that was a great title.

[Cirdan]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

No– at least not if we go by the Silmarillion– Morgoth "reared the threefold peaks of Thangorodrim" above Angband only after his return to Middle-earth.

Indeed, and that would be a valid point but...I'm not convinced that "Thangorodrim" isn't just a synonym for the realm of Angband -in the Appendices, that is. It's the way it is used in the there several times that led me to some doubt, and to my question. Consider this:

"Thereafter followed the hopeless war of the Eldar and the Edain against Thangorodrim, in which they were at last utterly defeated."

"Against" his volcanic peaks? No, against his evil realm, Angband! This led me to suspect that the LOTR Appendices were written before (or after) some of the Silmarillion, and Tolkien hadn't decided yet exactly which names would be applied to what. Perhaps the Histories would clear that up.

Regardless, Durin's Bane must have been a refugee from the War of Wrath. Of that this is written in the Silmarillion:

"The Balrogs were destroyed, save some few that fled and hid themselves in caverns inaccessible at the roots of the earth"

So besides under Moria we can find a couple more elsewhere! Any guesses? Ash Mountains? How about deep into Aglarond or under Mindolluin!

This would seem to be more "proof" in Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien:

"The Balrog is a survivor from The Silmarillion and the legends of the First Age. So is Shelob. The Balrogs, of whom the whips were the chief weapons, were primeval spirits of destroying fire, chief servants of the primeval Dark Power of the First Age. They were supposed to have been all destroyed in the overthrow of Thangorodrim, his fortress in the North. But it is here found (there is usually a hang-over especially of evil from one age to another) that one had escaped and taken refuge under the mountains of Hithaeglir (the Misty Mountains)."(Letter 144)

It's likely that he is speaking of the First Age of the Sun...although the War of the Powers was in the "First Age" too -First Age of the Stars.

[Cirdan]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

As for the question of how the Balrog entered Moria and why, you may want to have a look at this thread.

You and a couple of others made some excellent points there.

The Balrog entered by some other, vastly-ancient tunnel system which happened to terminate in a cavern deep beneath Baraz --most unfortunately for the hapless Dwarves. Moria was still relatively shallow at the close of the First Age and Durin's folk had 5,500 more years of digging to do to awaken and/or release the Balrog. The Balrog was trapped ("imprisoned") by either the final tumults of the cataclysm of the First Age (if they didn't all happen in a day) or perhaps trapped later by the cataclysm which sank Númenor and which affected Middle-earth geologically as well, as the world was made into a sphere:

And all the coasts and seaward regions of the western world suffered great change and ruin in that time; for the seas invaded the lands, and shores foundered, and ancient isles were drowned, and new isles were uplifted; and hills crumbled and rivers were turned into strange courses.

[Galin]

"The Balrogs were destroyed, save some few that fled and hid themselves in caverns inaccessible at the roots of the earth"

So besides under Moria we can find a couple more elsewhere! Any guesses? Ash Mountains? How about deep into Aglarond or under Mindolluin!

Still it might be noted that this was written when Tolkien imagined (seemingly) thousands of Balrogath at Morgoth's command in the First Age; and there is at least one later indication that Tolkien was considering a quite drastic reduction in numbers (at most seven)!

Tolkien never really got around to a true rewrite of the end of Quenta Silmarillion
-- outside of some cursory corrections, concerning which Christopher Tolkien warns do not necessarily illustrate that this section of QS thus was fully 'updated' and revised by his father.

Would JRRT have revised 'few' if he went ahead with this reduction? I don't know, but I'm just saying this line really hails from the late 1930s, well before Tolkien at least mused about reducing Balrog numbers in Middle-earth.

[Ksenia]

I know that this is an old post but I hope that somebody sometimes checks if sb wrote sth.I'm writing because I need help.I'm writing my MA thesis about archaisms on the basis of Tolkien's books,and I have problems with finding staff connected with it.if somebody has sth interesting or is able to help me please conntact me on my email adress xenia_87@wp.pl

[Cirdan]

Originally Posted by Galin

Still it might be noted that this was written when Tolkien imagined (seemingly) thousands of Balrogath at Morgoth's command in the First Age; and there is at least one later indication that Tolkien was considering a quite drastic reduction in numbers (at most seven)!

Tolkien never really got around to a true rewrite of the end of Quenta Silmarillion
-- outside of some cursory corrections, concerning which Christopher Tolkien warns do not necessarily illustrate that this section of QS thus was fully 'updated' and revised by his father.

Would JRRT have revised 'few' if he went ahead with this reduction? I don't know, but I'm just saying this line really hails from the late 1930s, well before Tolkien at least mused about reducing Balrog numbers in Middle-earth.

The quote from Letters that I had just offered above would seem to confirm this idea -well, that there was (perhaps) only one left. Do you have something you can quote for us here from the War of the Jewels History volume, or is this idea that there were supposed to be only a few Balrogs from another source?

[Galin]

The note hails from The Annals of Aman, but appears on the typescript specifically, so is probably not earlier than 1958-ish. The revision by Tolkien refers to the word host, but in the margin appears the drastic reduction and specific numbering...

('a host of Balrogs, the last of his servants that remained') 'his Balrogs, the last of his servants that remained faithful to him'. In the margin my father wrote: 'There should not be supposed more than say 3 or at most 7 ever existed.'

Morgoth's Ring, The Annals of Aman, §50

As I say, for the 1977 Silmarillion Christopher Tolkien retained the wording with respect to the War of Wrath, but he seems to have edited out still existing references to large numbers of Balrogs, nicely leaving the constructed version vague (enough) on the question.



Some published Silmarillion alterations to JRRT's Quenta Silmarillion are noted below, after the texts they are seemingly based on (unless these were altered by JRRT himself, but this is not noted in The History of Middle-Earth series at least, that I remember anyway).

__________

'Wherefore each embassy came with greater force than was agreed, but Morgoth sent the greater, and they were Balrogs. Maidros was ambushed...' (Of The Siege of Angband, Quenta Silmarillion) [] '... but Morgoth sent the more, and there were Balrogs.' Of The Return of the Noldor (The Silmarillion)

'Sauron came against Orodreth, the warden of the tower, with a host of Balrogs.' (Of the Ruin of Beleriand And the Fall of Fingolfin, Quenta Silmarillion) [] '... named Gorthaur, came against Orodreth, the warden of the tower upon Tol Sirion.' Of The Ruin Of Beleriand (The Silmarillion)

'There came wolves and serpents, and there came Balrogs one thousand,...' (Of the Fourth Battle: Nírnaith Arnediad, Quenta Silmarillion) [] 'There came wolves and wolfriders, and there came Balrogs, and dragons...' Of The Fifth Battle (The Silmarillion)