Balrog vs 200 000 dwarves ?

[Tuor in Gondolin]

A figure of 10,000-20,000 dwarves seems more of a realistic maximum,
not only with slow population increase but supplying them with food, etc.
Rohan itself, in a time at the War of the Ring when they had pretty much recovered from past problems, probably had a population of perhaps 100,000
(assuming a male fighting pop. of about Theoden's 10,000 estimate.
Especially after Hollin wasn't a source of trade there's limited trade potential---
dwarves better love eating mushrooms grown in tunnels (like
in southeast Pa.).

The image of an Alien stalking Moria is not only scary- but could be not
that far from Tolkien's conception.

Of course that does bring up the question of how the balrog organized
his orc/troll forces in Moria later. He seems to have been the generalisimo.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

"Each and every dwarf that met and saw the balrog died, and the survivors could just count the bodies, not even knowing what was attacking them."


Ah, got it. So it's Alien.

[cellurdur]

Originally Posted by Tuor in Gondolin

A figure of 10,000-20,000 dwarves seems more of a realistic maximum,
not only with slow population increase but supplying them with food, etc.
Rohan itself, in a time at the War of the Ring when they had pretty much recovered from past problems, probably had a population of perhaps 100,000
(assuming a male fighting pop. of about Theoden's 10,000 estimate.
Especially after Hollin wasn't a source of trade there's limited trade potential---
dwarves better love eating mushrooms grown in tunnels (like
in southeast Pa.).

The image of an Alien stalking Moria is not only scary- but could be not
that far from Tolkien's conception.

Of course that does bring up the question of how the balrog organized
his orc/troll forces in Moria later. He seems to have been the generalisimo.

I agree, just don't see Moria ever having anything near 200,000 dwarves. Look at Gondolin for example. They had an army of say 13,000. Considering they were elves it would give them a population of around 30,000. Gondolin was one of the great cities of Middle Earth.

From the lack of description as you said the dwarves never had a pitched battle with the Balrog. They probably experienced a sense of dread and were picked off.

We must also accept that enough dwarves left to populate and create Erebor. So after a certain amount of deaths, the dwarves probably decided to escape. The war with Sauron, though brief in the Second Age would have cut numbers back too.