Balrogs (/ˈbælrɒɡ/) are a species of powerful demonic monsters inJ. R. R. Tolkien'sMiddle-earth. One first appeared in print in hishigh-fantasy novelThe Lord of the Rings, where theCompany of the Ring encounter a Balrog known as Durin's Bane in the Mines ofMoria. Balrogs appear also in Tolkien'sThe Silmarillion andhis legendarium. Balrogs are tall and menacing beings who can shroud themselves in fire, darkness, and shadow. They are armed with fiery whips "of many thongs",[T 1] and occasionally use long swords.
In Tolkien's later conception, Balrogs could not be readily vanquished—a certain stature was required by the would-be hero. Onlydragons rivalled their capacity for ferocity and destruction;[T 2] during theFirst Age of Middle-earth, they were among the most feared ofMorgoth's forces. Their power came from their nature asMaiar, angelic beings like the Valar, though of lesser power.Tolkien invented the name "Balrog", providing an in-universe etymology for it as a word in his inventedSindarin language. He may have gained the idea of a fire demon from his philological study of the Old English wordSigelwara, which he studied in detail in the 1930s.Balrogs appear in the film adaptations ofThe Lord of the Rings byRalph Bakshi andPeter Jackson, in the streaming seriesThe Rings of Power, and incomputer and video games based on Middle-earth.
According to the mythology inThe Silmarillion, the evilValaMelkor, later called "Morgoth", corrupted lesserMaiar (angelic beings) to his service, as Balrogs, in the days of his splendour before the making ofArda.[T 3][T 4] After the awakening of theElves, the Valar captured Melkor and destroyed his fortresses Utumno andAngband. But they overlooked the deepest pits, where, with many of Melkor's other allies, the Balrogs fled into hiding. When Melkor returned to Middle-earth fromValinor, he was attacked by the evil giant spiderUngoliant; his scream drew the Balrogs out of hiding to his rescue.[T 4]
Tolkien's conception of Balrogs changed over time. In all his early writing, they are numerous. A host of a thousand is mentioned in theQuenta Silmarillion,[T 5] while at the storming ofGondolin Balrogs in the hundreds ride on the backs of theDragons.[T 6] They are roughly of twice[T 7] human size,[T 8] and were rarely killed in battle.[T 9] They were fierce demons, associated with fire, armed with fiery whips of many thongs and claws like steel, and Morgoth delighted in using them to torture his captives.[T 10]
In the published version ofThe Lord of the Rings, however, Balrogs became altogether more sinister and more powerful.Christopher Tolkien notes the difference, saying that in earlier versions they were "less terrible and certainly more destructible". He quotes a very late marginal note[T 11] that was not incorporated into the text saying "at most seven" ever existed;[T 12] though in theAnnals of Aman, written as late as 1958, Melkor still commands "a host of Balrogs".[T 13] In later writings they ceased to be creatures, but are insteadMaiar, lesserAinur like Gandalf orSauron, spirits of fire whom Melkor had corrupted before the creation of the World.[T 3] Power of the order of Gandalf's was necessary to destroy them, as when Gandalf at theBridge of Khazad-dûm tells the others "This is a foe beyond any of you."[T 14]
As Maiar, only the physical form of a Balrog could be destroyed. Tolkien says of the Valar and the Maiar that they can change their shape at will, and moveunclad in the raiment of the world, meaning invisible and without form.[T 15] But it seems that Morgoth, Sauron, and their associated Maiar could lose this ability: Morgoth, for example, was unable to heal his burns from theSilmarils or wounds fromFingolfin and the eagle Thorondor;[T 16] and Sauron lost his ability to assume a fair-seeming form after his physical body was destroyed in the downfall ofNúmenor.[T 17]
Tolkien does not address this specifically for Balrogs, though in his later conception, as at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, the Balrog appears "like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater". Though previously the Balrog had entered the "large square chamber" of Mazarbul, at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm it "drew itself to a great height, and its wings spread from wall to wall" in the vast hall.[T 14]The Balrog's size and shape, therefore, are not given precisely. When Gandalf threw it from the peak ofZirakzigil, the Balrog "broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin".[T 18] Whether Balrogs had wings (and if so, whether they could fly) is unclear.[1] This is due both to Tolkien's changing conception of Balrogs, and to theimprecise but suggestive and possibly figurative description of the Balrog that confronted Gandalf.[T 14]
The Balrog of Moria used aflaming sword ("From out of the shadow a red sword leapt flaming") and a many-thonged whip that "whined and cracked" in its battle with Gandalf. InThe Silmarillion, they also used black axes and maces.[T 19] Earlier writings also speak of steel claws and iron mail.[T 20]
In earlier drafts ofThe Lord of the Rings, some further indications of Tolkien's evolving conceptions appear, as when
A figure strode to the fissure, no more than man-high yet terror seemed to go before it. They could see the furnace-fire of its eyes from afar; its arms were very long; it had a red [?tongue].[T 21]
At this writing Tolkien contemplated an edict of the Valar concerning Balrogs, having Gandalf challenge the Balrog by saying "It is forbidden for any Balrog to come beneath the sky since Fionwë[a] son of Manwë overthrewThangorodrim."[T 21]
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Gothmog is developed in successive versions ofSilmarillion material. He is physically massive and strong, and in one version he is some 12 feet tall.[T 23] He wields a black axe and whip of flame as his weapons. He holds the titles of the Lord of the Balrogs, the High Captain ofAngband, and Marshal of the Hosts. In the Second Battle,Dagor-nuin-Giliath, he leads a force that ambushesFëanor and wounds him mortally.[T 24] He leads Balrogs,Orc-hosts, and Dragons as Morgoth's commander in the field in the Fifth Battle, Nírnaeth Arnoediad, and slays Fingon, High King of theNoldor. In that same battle, he capturesHúrin of Dor-lómin, who had slain his personal guard of Battle-trolls, and brings him to Angband.[T 25] As Marshal of the Hosts, he is in command of the Storming ofGondolin. He is about to killTuor when Ecthelion of the Fountain, a Noldorin Elf-lord, intervenes. Gothmog fights Ecthelion in single combat, and they kill each other.[T 26]
InThe Book of Lost Tales, Tolkien describesKosomot, the original version of Gothmog, as a son of Morgoth and the ogress Fluithuin or Ulbandi.[T 27]Gothmog is Sindarin for "Dread Oppressor".[T 28]Kosomot is often considered Gothmog's Quenya name;[T 29] however, in the Quenya name-list ofThe Fall of Gondolin another version appears,Kosomoko.[T 30]
In Tolkien's earlyLay of the Children of Húrin is "Lungorthin, Lord of Balrogs". This might be another name for Gothmog, thoughChristopher Tolkien thought it more likely that Lungorthin was simply "a Balrog lord".[T 31]
This Balrog appears inThe Lord of the Rings, encountered by theCompany of the Ring in theMines of Moria.[1] It survived the defeat ofMorgoth in theWar of Wrath, escaping to hide beneath theMisty Mountains.[T 32] For more than five millennia, the Balrog remained in its deep hiding place at the roots ofCaradhras,[T 33] one of the Mountains ofMoria, until in theThird Age, themithril-miners of theDwarf-kingdom of Khazad-dûm disturbed it. The Balrog killedDurin VI, the Dwarf-King of Khazad-dûm, whereafter it was called Durin's Bane by the Dwarves.[T 32][T 34]Avarice, principally formithril, drove the dwarves to go too deep and awaken the Balrog.[2]
The Dwarves attempted to fight the Balrog, but its power was far too great for them. In their efforts to hold Khazad-dûm against it, many Dwarves were killed: Durin's successor Náin ruled for only a year. The survivors were forced to flee. This disaster reached theSilvan Elves ofLothlórien, many of whom fled the "Nameless Terror".[T 32] From this time Khazad-dûm was known asMoria,Sindarin for "Black Pit" or "Black Chasm".[T 35][T 36]
For another 500 years, Moria was left to the Balrog; though according toUnfinished Tales, Orcs crept in soon after the Dwarves were driven out, leading to Nimrodel's flight.[T 37]Sauron began to put his plans for war into effect, and he sentOrcs andTrolls to the Misty Mountains to bar the passes.[T 34]
During the reign ofThráin II, the Dwarves attempted to retake Moria in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, culminating in the Battle of Azanulbizar before the eastern gate of Moria. This was a victory for the Dwarves, but the Balrog prevented them from reoccupying Moria.Dáin II Ironfoot, having slain the Orc Azog near the gate, perceived the terror of the Balrog within[T 32] and warned Thráin that Moria was unachievable until some greater force could remove the Balrog. The Dwarves departed and resumed their exile. Despite Dáin's warning,Balin made another attempt to retake Moria.[T 34] His party managed to start a colony, but was massacred a few years later.[T 14]
The Fellowship of the Ring travelled through Moria on the quest to destroy theOne Ring inMount Doom. They were attacked in the Chamber of Mazarbul by Orcs.[T 14] The Fellowship fled through a side door, but when the wizardGandalf the Grey tried to place a "shutting spell" on the door to block the pursuit behind them, the Balrog entered the chamber on the other side and cast a "terrible" counterspell. Gandalf spoke a word of Command to stay the door, but the door shattered and the chamber collapsed. Gandalf was weakened by this encounter. The company fled with him, but the Orcs and the Balrog, taking a different route, caught up with them at theBridge of Khazad-dûm. The ElfLegolas instantly recognized the Balrog and Gandalf tried to hold the bridge against it. As Gandalf faced the Balrog, he proclaimed, "You cannot pass, flame ofUdûn!", and broke the bridge beneath the Balrog. As it fell, the Balrog wrapped its whip about Gandalf's knees, dragging him to the brink. As the Fellowship looked on in horror, Gandalf cried "Fly, you fools!" and plunged into the darkness below.[T 14]
After a long fall, the two crashed into a deep subterranean lake, which extinguished the flames of the Balrog's body; however it remained "a thing of slime, stronger than a strangling snake". They fought in the water; the Balrog clutched at Gandalf to strangle him, and Gandalf hewed the Balrog withhis sword, until finally the Balrog fled into the primordial tunnels of Moria's underworld. Gandalf pursued the monster for eight days, until they climbed to the peak ofZirakzigil, where the Balrog was forced to turn and fight, its body erupting into new flame. Here they fought for two days and nights. In the end, the Balrog was defeated and cast down, breaking the mountainside where it fell "in ruin".[T 18] Gandalf himself died shortly afterwards, but he returned to Middle-earth with greater powers, asGandalf the White, "until his task was finished". Critics such as Jerram Barrs have recognised this as atransfiguration similar to that of Jesus Christ, suggestingGandalf's prophet-like status.[3]
The critic Clive Tolley notes that the contest between Gandalf and the Balrog on Durin's bridge somewhat recalls ashamanistic contest, but that a far closer parallel is medieval vision literature, giving the example ofSt Patrick's Purgatory, and evenDante'sDivine Comedy.[4]
The name "Balrog", but not the meaning, emerges early in Tolkien's work: it appears inThe Fall of Gondolin, one of the earliest texts Tolkien wrote, around 1918. Tolkien began a poem inalliterative verse about the battle of Glorfindel with the Balrog in that text, where both were killed by falling into the abyss, just like Gandalf and the Balrog inThe Lord of the Rings.[1]
An early list of names describedBalrog as "an Orc-word with no pure equivalent inTolkien's invented language ofQuenya: 'borrowed Malaroko-' ".[T 38] In Gnomish (another of Tolkien's invented languages),Balrog is parsed asbalc 'cruel' +graug 'demon', with a Quenya equivalentMalkarauke. Variant forms of the latter includeNalkarauke andValkarauke.[T 39]By the 1940s, when Tolkien began writingThe Lord of the Rings, he had come to think of Balrog asNoldorinbalch 'cruel' +rhaug 'demon', with a Quenya equivalentMalarauko (fromnwalya- 'to torture' +rauko 'demon').[T 40] The lastetymology, appearing in the invented languagesQuendi and Eldar, derivesBalrog as theSindarin translation of the Quenya formValarauko (Demon of Might). This etymology was published inThe Silmarillion.[T 41][T 42]Gandalf on the bridge of Khazad-dûm calls the Balrog "flame of Udûn" ( the Sindarin name of Morgoth's fortressUtumno).[T 14]
Tolkien was a professionalphilologist, a scholar of comparative and historicallinguistics.[T 44] The Balrog and other concepts in his writings derived from the Old English wordSigelwara, used in texts such as theCodex Junius to mean "Aethiopian".[6][7] He wondered why the Anglo-Saxons would have had a word with this meaning, conjecturing that it had formerly had a different meaning. Heemended the word toSigelhearwan, and in his essay "Sigelwara Land",[T 43] explored in detail the two parts of the word. He stated thatSigel meant "bothsun andjewel", the former as it was the name of the Sunrune*sowilō (ᛋ), the latter connotation fromLatinsigillum, aseal.[5] He decided thatHearwa was related to Old Englishheorð, "hearth", and ultimately to Latincarbo, "soot". He suggested from all this thatSigelhearwan implied "rather the sons ofMuspell than ofHam",[b] a class of demons in Northern mythology "with red-hot eyes that emitted sparks and faces black as soot".[T 43] The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey states that this both "helped to naturalise the Balrog" and contributed to theSilmarils, which combined the nature of the sun and jewels.[8] The Aethiopians suggested to Tolkien theHaradrim, a dark southern race of men.[T 45][9]
A real-world etymological counterpart for the word "Balrog" existed long before Tolkien's languages, inNorse mythology; an epithet of theNorse godOdin wasBáleygr, "fire-eyed".[10]
Joe Abbott, writing inMythlore, notes that the Old NorseVoluspa mentions that the fire-demonSurt carries both a sword and asviga laevi, a deadly whipping-stick or switch; he suggests that it is "a short step" from that to the Balrog's flaming whip.[1] Abbott makes a connection, too, with theBeowulf poet's account of the monsterGrendel: he notes that Tolkien wrote that Grendel was "physical enough in form and power, but vaguely felt as belonging to a different order of being, one allied to the malevolent 'ghosts' of the dead", and compares this with Aragorn's description of the Balrog as "both a shadow and a flame, strong and terrible".[1]
Tolkien felt acutely the error made by the English commander, theealdormanByrhtnoth, at theBattle of Maldon, allowing theVikings to step ashore and win the battle. Alexander Bruce, inMythlore, comments that Tolkien may have used Gandalf's battle with the Balrog on the narrow bridge in Moria to "correct the behavior of the self-serving Byrhtnoth through the actions of the self-less Gandalf".[11] Bruce notes that the Tolkien scholarJanet Brennan Croft also contrasts the two leaders.[11][12]
| Leader | Encounter | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Byrhtnoth | Battle of Maldon | AllowsViking enemy across causeway | Army defeated, Byrhtnoth killed, English payDanegeld tribute |
| Gandalf | Bridge of Khazad-dûm | Holds the bridge against the Balrog | Both Gandalf and the Balrog fall into the abyss. TheFellowship escape. |
There are multiple parallels between theFall of Gondolin and the fall ofTroy, as told in theIliad, but again the tales differ. The Elf Ecthelion leads the charge against the Orcs, and fights Gothmog, the greatest Balrog; they wound each other and both fall into the king's fountain in Gondolin; both drown. Bruce compares this to howAeneas rallies the Trojans, but fails, and sees kingPriam perish.[13]
The Balrog inRalph Bakshi's 1978 animated version was named Durin's Bane and had large wings like those of a bat.[14]Peter Jackson's 2001 and 2002 filmsThe Fellowship of the Ring andThe Two Towers had similar wings, expressing its "satanic, demonic nature".[14] Earlier artists such asTed Nasmith had depicted Balrogs without wings; Jackson's films used the design of Tolkien illustratorJohn Howe, making wings standard, in the same way that Jackson has made pointed ears standard for elves.[14] A Balrog appears inThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, with a similar visual design to Jackson's monster.[15]
Balrogs appear inMiddle-earth computer and video games and merchandise. In thereal-time strategy gameThe Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth, and itssequel, both based on Jackson's movies, the Balrog can use its wings, although only in short leaps. In therole-playing gameThe Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, also based on the Jackson movies, the Balrog uses its wings to fly into the air, and comes crashing down, sending a damaging shockwave of flames at the player. In another game based on Jackson's movies,The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, the Balrog is a playable hero.[16][17]
A Balrog features inKing Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's 2017 albumMurder of the Universe (2017) as a giant reanimated monster. Songwriter Stu Mackenzie explained: "It might not be the Balrog from Middle Earth, but he is a sort of fire demon."[18]
EarlyDungeons & Dragons books featured Balrogs among other Middle-earth characters likeHobbits andEnts; after a lawsuit brought by theTolkien Estate, these Tolkien-specific names were changed, the Balrogs becoming Balor, after theone-eyed monster of Irish mythology.[19]
A now-defunct fantasy writing prize, theBalrog Award, was named after the monsters.[20] The Japanese anime seriesRestaurant to Another World introduces a Balrog as a butler; this Balrog is described as polite.[21] A character simply named "Balrog" appears as anantagonist in theIndie gameCave Story. It has no similarities to the one inThe Lord of the Rings rather being ananthropomorphic bar of soap, according to thedeveloper.[22]
