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The White CouncilRe: How tough were orcs, trolls, and balrogs?Tolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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The White CouncilRe: How tough were orcs, trolls, and balrogs?Tolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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Posted by Anardil on April 27, 2000 at 14:25:19 In Reply to: Re: How tough were orcs, trolls, and balrogs? posted by Jim Gregors on April 26, 2000 at 20:09:47:
: Well, I never said that Gandalf fell, I simply said that he died. Regarding the phrase "cast his enemy down", the meaning is open to interpretation - it could be a literary device, or it could be a simple statement. I tend to believe the later because nobody had ever succeeded in killing a Balrog in a conventional manner (i.e., chopping its head off, or stabbing it through the heart, etc.). In one case, the Balrog drowned, in the other two, they fell (or were pushed/dragged) to their death. Fair enough, but actually Gandalf's duel is not that open to interpretation. Gandalf actually says "He was with me still. His fire was quenched, but now he was a thing of slime, stronger than a strangling snake. We fought far under the living earth, where time is not counted. Ever he clutched me, and ever I hewed him, till at last he fled into dark tunnels... Out he sprang, and even as I came behind, he burst into new flame. There was none to see, or perhaps in after ages songs would still be sung of the Battle of the Peak... I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountainside where he smote it in his ruin." (The Two Towers, III, 128-129 in my version.) As for the other two recorded instances of Balrogs being killed, Ecthelion killed Gothmog with the sharp end of his pointed helmet. Only Glorfindel's duel ended in a Balrog dying from a great fall. Judging from Gandalf's duel, they seemed to be able to withstand such a fall fairly well. Even if there only ever were 7 Balrogs, which the texts certainly do not make clear, this doesn't mean they were more powerful at one point in time compared to another. Balrogs remained constant through the ages in their ferocity and power, if their numbers gradually dwindled; it was just the power of the heroes that opposed them which changed over time, making later Balrogs seem more powerful in comparison to earlier ones. By the way I have no idea why this post is all in italics.
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