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Term: Valarauker Related Terms: balrog Definition: The elvish (Quenya) name for balrogs, (Sindarin) the Maiar fire spirits allied with Morgoth in the beginning of days. "... their hearts were of fire, but they were cloaked in darkness, and terror went before them; they had whips of flame" (JRRT, Silmarillion) Most were destroyed before or during the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age. A few fled and survived in the deep caverns of the earth. The dwarves of Khazad-dum eventually awoke a balrog when the went delving too far for mithril. This balrog (unnamed) slew both Durin VI and his son, Nain, and was titled 'Durin's Bane'. During the War of the Ring, Gandalf battled 'Durin's Bane' in Moria, and sacrificing himself so the Fellowship could escape Moria. He slew the balrog on the mountaintop of Zirakzigil on January 25th, 3019 Third Age. In early tales, several passages tell that the balrogs were many. However, a notation in Book of Lost Tales II reads: "* The idea that Morgoth disposed of a 'host' of Balrogs endured long, but in a late note my father said that only very few ever existed - 'at most seven'." (JRRT, BOLTII, The Fall of Gondolin) And again, in an attached note in the Annals of Aman, Morgoth's Ring: "In the margin my father wrote: 'There should not be supposed more than say 3 or at most 7 ever existed.'" For more details, see: http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/TAB2.html Author: locksley on 02/23/05 |
Encyclopedia 1.0 by Rebecca Smallwood
