Posted: May 02, 2000 at 10:16:42: by Foradan
: : Just how many Balrogs were there, anyway? Tolkien's earlier writings refer to 'companies' of Balrogs attacking Feanor, or at the Nirnaeth. But in his letters, he says, as an aside, "...of the Balrogs there were never very many...five or seven at most..". Which leads to some interesting math. Gothmog died at Gondolin, and Glorfindel slew another during the retreat. Gandalf slew the Balrog of Moria, leaving (at most) four unaccounted for. Or does it?: Some also died during the War of Wrath. It is possible that the Balrog Gandalf encountered was the last of his race. At any rate, you're on the right track :) Tolkien's latest decision might have been that there were only seven Balrogs, but, for me, that decision has come too late. I hold the Silmarillion as the most authoritative source of Balrog-lore, whether or not it should be so, and it gives me the picture that there had to be many more than seven. One piece of narrative that I can give as support for my view is that in the War of Wrath "the Balrogs were destroyed, save some (that means more than one) that...(can't remember exactly)" It would hardly be justified to say that "the Balrogs were destroyed" if only a maximum of three of the remaining five actually were. My Balrog-figure is a dozen at the very least, probably close to two dozen.
Somewhere I think I've seen the argument that the Balrogs were so powerful that if there were many, they would have wiped out the Noldor. Well, I think that if there were some elven-lords who could slay a Balrog, it's likely that there were also many who, when backed by others, could face them in battle for a decent length of time before getting killed. Anyway, Morgoth did win all the battles where he used Balrogs.
-Foradan
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