Balrog

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This article deals with J.R.R. Tolkien's Balrogs. For more Balrogs see Balrog (disambiguation)

Balrogs are fictional demon-like creatures from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. A Balrog (Sindarin for "Demon of Might"; the Quenya form is Valarauco) was a tall, menacing being in the shape of a Man, having control of both fire and shadow and with a fiery whip of many thongs. They induced great terror in friends and foes alike and could shroud themselves in darkness and shadow. The Fellowship of the Ring encountered a Balrog in the mines of Moria, in The Lord of the Rings (specifically, in Book II, the second half of The Fellowship of the Ring).

Balrogs in the First Age

The Balrogs were originally Maiar, of the same order as Sauron, Saruman and Gandalf, but they became seduced by Morgoth, who corrupted them to his service in the days of his splendour before the creation of Arda. During the First Age, they were among the most feared of Morgoth's forces. When his fortress of Utumno was destroyed by the Valar, they fled and lurked in the pits of Angband.

As Maiar, Balrogs would have originally had the natural ability to change their shape at will, and to move "unclad in the raiment of the world" meaning invisible and without form. However, it seems that Melkor, Sauron and their assorted Ainur servants all lost the ability to change shape and became bound to one form permanently. Melkor became locked into the "tyrant of Utumno", gigantic and terrible, and he even seems unable to heal basic wounds, his hands and forehead remained burned by the Silmarils and his face and foot wounds never healed after the duel with Fingolfin. Sauron was never again able to take a fair-seeming form after the flooding of Númenor and even lost his finger when the Ring was cut from his hand, though he was able to do so prior to this event and did so quite frequently. While it is not specifically stated, it seems that Balrogs were fixed in their fiery demonic forms in the same way.

The Balrogs were first encountered by the Elves during the Dagor-nuin-Giliath in the First Age. After the great victory of the Ñoldor over Morgoth's Orcs, Fëanor pressed on towards Angband, but the Balrogs came against him. He was mortally wounded by Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, the only Balrog known by name. Though his sons arrived shortly thereafter and fought off the demons, Fëanor died of his wounds, and his spirit departed for the Halls of Mandos.

Later, in the Fall of Gondolin, two Balrogs fell at the hands of Elves (though, according to the Book of Lost Tales 2, forty-eight Balrogs fell in Gondolin). Ecthelion of the Fountain fought Gothmog in the square of the King, where they both perished. Glorfindel fought a Balrog who waylayed the escape from the fallen Gondolin; they both fell off a mountainside to their deaths.

The Balrog in The Lord of the Rings

The Balrogs were nearly all destroyed at the end of the First Age. It was stated in the Silmarillion that all the Balrogs were destroyed in the War of Wrath save some few that fled and hid themselves in the bowels of the earth. However, it was later discovered that one had escaped and hidden in Moria. It was known as Durin's Bane after killing King Durin VI, not long after awakening. The history of this Balrog prior to that is not stated in any of Tolkien's texts.

Eventually, the Fellowship of the Ring also ventured through the mines of Moria and stumbled upon Durin's Bane. While the Fellowship fled the caves, Gandalf battled the Balrog, and both fell into an abyss. It was later revealed that both survived the fall and continued to battle until Gandalf eventually slew the Balrog before dying of his own wounds.

Weaponry

The Balrog of Moria used a sword ("From out of the shadow a red sword leapt flaming") and whip of flame in its battle with Gandalf. In the First Age, they also used black axes and maces, as described in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad (Battle of Unnumbered Tears).

The appearance of the Balrog

Despite numerous interpretations of the Balrog's appearance, Tolkien himself was never entirely clear as to the exact appearance of the Balrog. It was unclear whether the Balrog had retained the Maia ability to change shape, or what was to be the exact shape of the Balrog encountered by the Fellowship. Specifically, it was never clear how large the Balrog actually was, and whether it was intended as a winged creature or not.

Winged or unwinged

The debate on his wings mainly comes from The Bridge of Khazad-dûm, a chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring. There are two references in this chapter.

"His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings." (...) "...suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall..."

The Lord of the Rings II 5 "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm"

From these two brief passages, it is unclear whether the reference to wings is to be taken metaphorically or literally, whether the wings of shadow were actually there and can actually support the creature in flight, or the shadow of the Balrog just looked like wings, or whether it was meant as an allusion to its menacing nature. There are other mentions of Balrogs travelling with "winged speed", but this is a common expression used widely throughout Tolkien's work, as in other literary works.

Adding to the confusion, both Gandalf and Glorfindel had had duels with Balrogs, and in both cases, the Balrog fell from a great height and did not use its so-called wings, not even for gliding. Again, this can be interpreted in various ways. It is conceivable that the wings could not be used for flying due to its size or its current physical condition (injury or exhaustion as a result of combat). In the movie version, the Balrog's wings did not have any sort of flesh on it, and this would make it impossible to fly. Also, even if the movie Balrog's wings could be used to fly, they would have been damaged from the fall down the abyss and/or the monster was too distracted fighting Gandalf to use them. However, in the video game The Battle for Middle-earth, and its sequel, both based on Jackson's movie, the Balrog can use its wings, although only in short leaps.

The Balrog's size

Even the exact size of Balrogs are a matter of dispute. Tolkien gives a few statements of the Balrog's size.

"Balrog strode to the fissure, no more than man-high yet terror seemed to go before it."'

The History of Middle-earth Volume VII (The Treason of Isengard), X The Mines of Moria II: The Bridge

This does not appear in the published version of The Lord of the Rings, so it may or may not be intended as the definitive version. But the other texts on Balrogs indicate that they were not of any particularly great height.

In Lord of the Rings, Tolkien notes that an entrance was sized so that

"...orcs one after another leaped into the chamber." and "...clustered in the doorway."

The Lord of the Rings II 5 "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm".

Such a doorway seems unlikely to be passable for a creature much larger than man-sized without destroying the passage.

For movie adaptations of the book, both of these issues needed to be resolved. The Balrog in by Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version resembled a winged ape, not much larger than man-sized but considerably heavier, and it did fly. Peter Jackson's film version of The Fellowship of the Ring, released in 2001, ultimately decided on a clearly huge, winged creature. However, during the fight with Gandalf, the Balrog could not fly because the physical characteristics of the wing did not permit so.

The name

The term Balrog is defined as Demon of Might in the published Silmarillion. No further information on the name is given.

Etymology

The name, but not the meaning, is relatively early: it already appears in the Fall of Gondolin, one of the earliest texts Tolkien ever wrote (ca. 1918). At the time the name is described as "an Orc-word with no pure Quenya equivalent: 'borrowed Malaroko-'". Its meaning at the time was Cruel demon.

In the Gnomish (=early Sindarin) wordlist from the same period Balrog is given as balc 'cruel' + graug 'demon', with a Qenya equivalent Malkarauke. Variant forms of the latter include Nalkarauke and Valkarauke.

By the 1940s, when writing of The Lord of the Rings had begun, Tolkien had come to think of Balrog as Noldorin (Sindarin) balch (cruel) + rhaug (demon), with a Quenya equivalent Malarauko (from nwalya- (to torture) + rauko (demon).

The last etymology given for Balrog, written as part of Quendi and Eldar, finally gives the Quenya form Valarauko (Demon of Might), defining Balrog as the Sindarin translation. This etymology was adopted in the published Silmarillion.

Plural form

The Sindarin plural form for Balrog is not clear. Tolkien consistently used Balrogs, but this is generally considered an anglicization because Sindarin does not form plurals in that way. In one case Tolkien used Balrogath, similar to Pheriannath for 'Halflings', Argonath for 'king-stones', Dagorath for 'battles', et cetera. However, the '-ath' ending was often used as a 'class plural', and thus 'Balrogath' might mean 'Balrogkind' rather than simply 'Balrogs'. Linguists disagree on how a simple Sindarin plural would be formed, but most often suggest either *Balroeg or *Belryg.

The plural form for Quenya Valarauko is attested as Valaraukar.

Early conceptions of the Balrog

In one of Tolkien's early Middle-earth writings, Lay of the Children of Húrin, "Lungorthin, Lord of Balrogs" is mentioned. It is not, however, certain if this was another name for Gothmog, or it simply meant "a Balrog lord". According to Christopher Tolkien, the latter is more probable, as the name Gothmog was mentioned in the earliest Middle-earth writings, as well as the final version of Tolkien's legendarium.

The Balrogs were originally envisioned as being immense in number:

"The early conception of Balrogs makes them less terrible, and certainly more destructible, than they afterwards became: they existed in 'hundreds' (p. 170), and were slain by Tuor and the Gondothlim in large numbers: "thus five fell before Tuor's great axe Dramborleg, three before Ecthelion's sword, and two score were slain by the warriors of the king's house."

The Book of Lost Tales 2, commentary by Christopher Tolkien on The Fall of Gondolin.

"There came wolves and serpents and there came Balrogs one thousand, and there came Glaurung the Father of Dragons."

The Lost Road, Quenta Silmarillion chapter 16, §15.

As the legendarium became more formidable and internally consistent, and the Balrogs more terrible, this number was much reduced. In the end Tolkien stated that there were "at most" seven Balrogs:

"In the margin my father wrote: 'There should not be supposed more than say 3 or at most 7 ever existed.'"

Morgoth's Ring, Section 2 (AAm*): note 50 (just before section 3).

The number of Balrogs changed to at most 7 at the same time they 'became' Maiar in Tolkien's mind. So this note is the only applicable indication of Balrog numbers that Tolkien wrote. None of the earlier texts were changed to fit this new conception, however.

Other appearances of the Balrog

Though the Balrog of Moria was never named by Tolkien himself, Iron Crown Enterprises later dubbed him Muar for their Middle-earth role playing (MERP) products. It should be noted, however, that this is a non-canonical name.

In the Japanese animated series Yu-Gi-Oh!, the character Alister uses a monster called Gorlab (a monster resembling Balrog; also note that "Gorlab" is "Balrog" spelled backwards) in the second part of his initial duel with Seto Kaiba. This Balrog is a firey demon with two horns on its head, large leathery wings, a tail, and a strip of orange flames down its back, like hair. In the English dub of the series, the creature's name is changed to Gorlag, and its flames are changed to a blue colour. None of these cards have been released in the real world trading card game.

In the US and European release of Capcom's Street Fighter II video game, an African-American boxer named Balrog was featured as one of the boss characters. Originally called Mike Bison in Japan, the name was changed due to similarities with Mike Tyson. Abbreviated to M. Bison, the name was given in the American version to the final boss of the game, the original Vega in the Japanese version. Balrog was originally the Spanish fighter with the claw and mask. Sagat remained Sagat for all incarnations.

Wizet's online MMORPG MapleStory features two versions of Balrog. A flightless Jr. Balrog, deep within the Cursed Sanctuary, and a duet of much stronger, flying Crimson Balrogs that attack players travelling on a ship to and from the continent of Ossyria.

Ganon from The Legend of Zelda is often depicted as a being fitting the description of a Balrog.

In the version of Ultima Exodus that was released for the original NES in 1987, the final level contains winged ape-like monsters called Balrogs.

The Balrog in Peter Jackson's film resembles the eponymous character from the Diablo II and Diablo computer games.

The The Gathering card Lord of the Pit was originally titled Balrog, but this was changed for legal reasons. ^*

The roguelike computer game Moria features a Balrog as its final boss.

In the roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons, the demon known as the Balor was modeled on a Balrog, including its weapons of a flaming sword and whip.

In the Game Boy Advance game The Lost Age, there is a side-quest boss named Valukar, which name sounds similar to the Quenya name of the Balrog, Valaraukar.

In Ultima Online and Ultima IV, large winged demons labelled ' Balrons' are present as combatable enemies, they are astonishingly similar to the representation within the film.

In Masami Kurumada's anime Saint Seiya: The Hades Inferno Chapter, the judge of the first prison of hell has the surplis of the Balrog.

In the video game Total Destruction, Nick the Demon resembles the Balrog, only less engulfed in flames.

In the Dragon Warriors RPG, the Balrog was a monster described in the Out of the shadows rulebook. In this game, the Balrog was in fact quite similar to Tolkien's Balrogs. It was the most powerful and dangerous monster in the game.

In the video game Urban Chaos a balrog is fought as a boss.

In the freeware computer game Cave Story, a major character is named Balrog, though his physical appearance leaves his relation to Tolkien's demon questionable.

External links

The Truth About Balrogs essay series by Conrad Dunkerson.

Middle-earth Maiar | Fictional demons

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