Transcript: CCT#5

Coming at you live from the ruins of Thangorodrim, this is Crystal Clear Tolkien.

This is Silime. Welcome to Crystal Clear Tolkien. Listener Robb W. sent me an email asking if I would address the topic of the Balrog of Moria. While I would have loved to do an episode solely on that Balrog, I found it positively impossible giving how little Tolkien wrote about that particular character. Instead, I present this podcast which addresses not only that Balrog, but all Balrogs in Tolkien's world of Middle-earth.

Let's begin with the observation that 98% of all essays on the subject will point out: Balrogs are fallen Maiar twisted by their servitude to Melkor into these demonic beasts. After all, this is what it says about Balrogs in The Silmarillion(1). Some people, many people, say that's the beginning and the end of the topic. But, as with most things we look at on Crystal Clear Tolkien, there's more to it than just that.  There are, in fact, quite a number of references to the Balrogs having been creations of Melkor's, and not simply perversions of existing forms(2), and that this creation occurred as early as the first Year of the Trees(3).

Melkor, like all of the Ainur, was a creator spirit.  We know he had the ability to create things before he rebelled, and we know he was the greatest and first of all the Ainur.  I'll be creating an entire podcast solely about Melkor, so I won't go too much into him here.  The point is that there is nothing that states that as a result of his rebellion, Eru removed, stripped, or even limited any of Melkor's powers or abilities.  So there is no reason why the Balrogs could not have been original creations of his.  In my opinion, what finally appeared in The Silmarillion was a bit of unintentional allegory creeping in -- a play on the idea that the devil of Christian faith cannot create, only destroy or pervert.  Religious themes in Tolkien will also be looked at in depth in a future podcast.

I'll come back to the question of the origin of Balrogs a little later. First I want to talk a little bit about another somewhat controversial aspect of Balrogs, that being how many were there? In The History of Middle-Earth: Volume Eleven, The War of the Jewels and in several other places throughout the Histories, Tolkien states that during the Nírnaeth Arnoediad Melkor unleashed a thousand Balrogs(4). We also know that not one Balrog was killed in that battle. How do we know this? Because in History of Middle-Earth Volume Two, The Book of Lost Tales 2, Tolkien expressly states as much when Rog and his House attack the host of Balrogs laying siege to Gondolin.

"... [T]he number of Balrogs that perished was a marvel and dread to the hosts of Melko, for ere that day never had any of the Balrogs been slain by the hand of Elves or Men."(5)

However, that same book describes the Balrogs existing only in hundreds. We know for certain that during the fall of Gondolin, at least fifty Balrogs were killed, probably many more because we're never given an idea just how many Rog's House slew (and hell, we're given the distinct impression that Rog and his House laid waste to those Balrogs before the demons managed to get into Gondolin). But it is stated that Ecthelion slew three Balrogs with swords and then tumbled into the King's Fountain with Gothmog; Glorfindel killed one when he died; Tuor took out five; and the King's Host killed at least forty(6).

The real controversy surrounding the number of Balrogs has to do with a note Tolkien made on a typescript copy of The Annals of Aman that stated there should never be assumed to have been more than seven Balrogs(7). So how do we resolve this obvious contradiction? Quite easily, actually, when you realise that Melkor made Balrogs twice. The initial brood of Balrogs were created as it states in The History of Middle-Earth: Volume Ten, Morgoth's Ring in the first Year of the Trees. But, these Balrogs were not the same as the ones in the Nírnaeth or sent against Gondolin. In Year of the Trees 1099, just before Melkor was imprisoned and chained the first time, he sent his Balrogs against the Valar in a last ditch save-his-ass effort, and Manwë wiped them out. Every last one of them. Manwë was pissed(8) (and I am not over dramatizing his pissiness).

After Melkor is unchained, though, despite swearing oaths of fealty up one side and down the other, he nevertheless goes right back out, rebuilds Angband, and starts making Balrogs again and adds Orcs to his bag of tricks(9). Now this has been a rather large digression, but I think it can answer elegantly the question of where did Balrogs come from. Given the quantity of Balrogs that we see in the late First Age, I find it difficult to accept there were that many Maiar loyal to Melkor by that time, let alone whether or not that many Maiar ever even existed in Eä.

So, as Monk would say, here's what I think happened. This is only my opinion, and you can take it with a grain of salt, but I believe it incorporates both theories quite nicely without having to deal with retconning anything.

When Melkor initially fled to the East, he was accompanied by perhaps a dozen Maiar -- Sauron among them. Somewhere around half of these Maiar became the initial host of the Balrogs, their forms having become twisted and fell as a result of the evil intentions in their spirits.  These Balrogs, though, were obliterated by Manwë just before the defeat of Melkor.  Following his release, Melkor sought to recreate these creatures as part of his army.  These later Balrogs did not possess the strength and power of the Maiar, but were more like cheap copies that could be produced in great numbers at the expense of quality.  These Balrogs -- those that survived Gondolin, anyway -- were destroyed in the destruction of Thangorodrim, with the notable exception of the Balrog of Moria.

Now that I have taken on two of the biggest controversies surrounding the Balrogs, let's talk about another one. What did Balrogs look like? There's quite a few things we can all agree on regarding their appearance: they were creatures primarily of fire and shadow(10), they primarily wielded whips of flame(11), they had claws of steel(12) as well as fangs of steel(13), and they wore iron armour(14). What is not so agreed upon is, number one, how large they were and number two, whether or not they possessed wings.

In Lord of the Rings, the Balrog of Moria was described as "... A dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater...."(15) This is supported by a pencilled note on the manuscript of this section which says "It seemed to be of man's shape, but it's form could not be plainly discerned. It felt larger than it looked."(16) It's further supported that this Balrog was typical of the size by various references to the Balrogs during the fall of Gondolin. For instance, Ecthelion was able to wrap his legs around Gothmog's thighs. If Balrogs were, indeed, dozens of feet tall, they would have no need to climb on drakes or fly on dragons in order to enter Gondolin, and forty of them couldn't have piled into the King's Square near the end of the sack. When Glorfindel strikes with his sword during his own battle with a Balrog, he is able to reach the Balrog's shoulder. (Though here there is a contradiction of everything we know about a Balrog's size, for Tolkien states that Glorfindel's Balrog was nigh on twice his own height(17).) I don't want any of you to get the impression that the Balrog of Moria was some kind of mutant midget Balrog; all Balrogs from the First Age, after Melkor's release, were the same size, somewhere between, let's say, seven and twelve feet tall, and that most were roughly a little over the typical man-height. Glorfindel's Balrog seems to be notable in its size, since he's the only Balrog we are even given a distinct height reference for.

The power they had, and the shadow around them, though, gave the sense that they were larger than they actually were. A feeling of looming intimidation surrounded them. Another draft of Fellowship of the Ring described this as "terror seemed to go before it"(18). In any case, it seems highly unlikely they approached the size of Peter Jackson's Balrog in Moria (side note, I sometimes wonder if PJ ever read any of Tolkien's works other than Lord of the Rings before taking on this project).

Okay, onto wings. I'm going to state up front that I don't believe Balrogs have wings, and that's going to colour my evidence. If you disagree with me, I have no problem with that, make your own podcast and I'll listen to it. Again, my evidence is seated primarily in what occurred during the fall of Gondolin. If Balrogs had wings, they would have no need to ride the dragons or climb the drakes in order to enter the city. They would have just flown in themselves. I also don't buy the story that they had vestigial wings that didn't work; it goes against everything we know about Creation in Middle-earth to believe that such appendages would have been created without purpose. I've read all the quotes that wingers point to in order to support their point of view, but I just keep coming back to the simple question of if Balrogs have wings, why don't we ever see them fly?

And, believe me, they had plenty of opportunity to demonstrate their abilities. When Glorfindel fought his Balrog, the creature merely leapt from rock to rock and, in the end, fell to its death; why not fly to safety? Why not pick off the Elves as they ran from the air? I just don't buy that because the word 'wings' is mention in The Fellowship of the Ring in relation to the Balrog of Moria that it was referring to literal wings. In fact, the quote is "... [T]he shadow about it reached out like two vast wings."(19) That, my friends, is called a simile. You can tell because it uses the word 'like'. This does not say that the Balrog has wings. It says that the shadows around the Balrog spread out around it like wings. Only one creature of Melkor's was ever specifically stated to have been given wings, and those were the dragons.

And dragons are, say it with me, another show.

So we've looked at Balrogs as a race in general up to this point. Now I want to look at them a little more specifically, especially since Robb W. asked about a very particular Balrog. Namely, the Balrog of Moria. And I will talk about this Balrog, what little there is to be found about it... in a moment.

First, though, I want to talk about another Balrog. One we've mentioned before in this podcast, but one I want to go into more detail about. That's Gothmog, Lord of the Balrogs, high-captain of Angband. Originally, Gothmog was intended to be Melkor's son(20). (Interesting note is that Gothmog is also the only Balrog ever assigned gender.) This, of course, was discarded at the same time as all other references to the Valar having children. Gothmog, however, retained his high station, if not his origin.

We know that Gothmog was not one of the original Balrogs, or we can at least presume this since Manwë wiped out all the original Balrogs before the coming of the sun. Going by the theory I put for before, it's unlikely that Gothmog was a Maia, unless he was simply another Maia that fled with Melkor and hid from the Valar as Sauron did. Case can be made either way, and I am not going to pick one. This is one thing Silime does not have an opinion on; note it on your calendars.

Gothmog was a badass. In addition to the who-knows-how-many Elves who fell before him, we know he took down three of the greatest. Fëanor, Fingon, and Ecthelion, though I am loathe to give Gothmog the last one. I believe Ecthelion chose to sacrifice himself, not that Gothmog killed him.

It's interesting to note that Gothmog is the only Balrog we see who speaks, in that he gives orders to Melkor's host at Gondolin.  This is in direct contradiction to a statement Tolkien makes in one of his letters that Balrogs do not speak, laugh, sneer, or make any sort of vocal sound whatsoever(21).  However, in addition to Gothmog, there are examples in both The Fellowship of the Ring and The History of Middle-Earth Volume Three, The Lays of Belariand of the Balrogs vocalizing.

Additionally, there is some evidence that Gothmog was not necessarily unique in his speech ability, though we are not shown so explicitly.  In The History of Middle-Earth Volume Three, The Lays of Belariand, we are introduced to Lungorthin, another Balrog lord(22).  This, in addition to references later in that volume of Balrog captains leading bands of Orcs, gives the indication that there was a hierarchy among the Balrogs, something that hardly makes sense among creatures with no vocal communication skills.

Which brings us, at long last, to the answer to the actual question Robb W. had asked -- what's the skinny on the Balrog of Moria?  As I said, there isn't a whole lot written specifically about this Balrog, but here's what we do know.

After the ruin of Thangorodrim, the Balrogs were believed to have been destroyed utterly.  However, the Balrog of Moria escaped this fate, and hid beneath the Misty Mountains for thousands of years.  It's possible that more than one Balrog slipped out this way, but whether they did or not, Tolkien does say that by the time the Fellowship pass through Moria, this Balrog is the last(23).  Possibly, this is because it lay so long hidden beneath the mountains.  We know that the Mines of Moria were active for quite some time before the Balrog was unleashed.  It wasn't until Third Age 1980 that the Balrog drove the Dwarves out and killed, among others, Durin and Náin(24).  The most plausible explanation for this is given numerous times throughout the Histories, being that the Balrog had buried itself deep within the mountains and the Dwarves delved too deeply in their search for mithril that they uncovered it.

Beyond that, we really have no other information, save that Gandalf was the one who at the last slew the beast, ending the Balrog race forever.

I hope this answers your question, Robb, as well as offering plenty of information on the Balrogs as a whole.

You can visit the Crystal Clear Tolkien blog for transcripts and citations at http://silime.libsyn.com. Remember, if you have comments or questions about this episode, or if you have a question about Middle-Earth that you'd like me to address on a future episode, then please drop me an email at [e-mail].  That's S-I-L-I-M-E at gmail dot com.

Crystal Clear Tolkien is a proud member of the Lord of the Rings Radio Network.  Visit us online at http://www.lotrradio.com.

Until next time, I'm Silime and this is Crystal Clear Tolkien.  Namarie.

References

1. The Silmarillion, Valaquenta : Of the Enemies, pg31
2. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Ten, Morgoth's Ring, The Later Quenta Silmarillion (1), pg159
3. Ibid., The Annals of Aman, pg70
4. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Eleven, The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals pg74
5. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Two, The Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin, pg180
6. Ibid., pg214
7. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Eleven, The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, pg134
8. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Ten, Morgoth's Ring, The Annals of Aman, pg75
9. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Five, The Road and Other Writings, The Later Annals of Valinor/The Later Annals of Beleriand, pg135, 138
10. Lord of the Rings, 1994 ed., Fellowship of the Ring, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm, pg321-22
11. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Two, The Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin , pg170
12. Ibid., pg170
13. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Three, The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, pg351
14. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Two, The Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin , pg214
15. Lord of the Rings, 1994 ed., Fellowship of the Ring, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm, pg321
16. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Seven, The Treason Of Isengard, The Bridge, pg199
17. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Two, The Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin , pg194
18. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Seven, The Treason Of Isengard, The Bridge, pg197
19. Lord of the Rings, 1994 ed., Fellowship of the Ring, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm, pg322
20. History of Middle-Earth: Volume One, The Book of Lost Tales 1, Coming of the Valar, pg98
21. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 210, pg274
22. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Three, The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of the Children of Húrin, pg117, 123
23. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 144, pg180
24. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Twelve, The Peoples of Middle-Earth, The Heirs of Elendil, pg222