How powerful was the Balrog?

just how powerful was the bellrock it actually only appeared for a few pages of the lord of the rings but it kills gandalf who undoubtedly is very powerful so how powerful was it and what was it hi everyone this is robert welcome to in deep geek this video is sponsored by skillshare the online learning community please do stick around to the end for an exclusive offer from them or if you'd like to see more videos about great fantasy stories like the lord of the rings a song of ice and fire and the witcher please click on the subscribe button in the bottom right of your screen and click on the bell icon first of all let's be clear when we're talking about the bellrock we're talking about the one that faced off against gandalf in moria there were others that you can find referenced throughout the legendarium particularly the silmarillion we don't have a name for this particular balrog though he's generally known as durian's bane for reasons we'll get into in a moment anyway the first indication we have of quite how powerful balrogs are in general comes from an understanding of where they come from for balrogs are maya angelic beings created by uru alouevitar before the beginning of the world some took physical form and entered ardha for context sauron gandalf and sarahman are also all maya sauron and the balrogs were effectively corrupted by melkor morgoth and joined with him in his rebellion against uru eluvita this is a very similar concept to the fall of lucifer and the other fallen angels in christian theology morgoth taking the lucifer role sauron his chief lieutenant and the balrog's other fallen angels they took the shape of monstrous fire beasts at which point we have to acknowledge a fact that is not often obvious to casual readers of tolkien's legendarium the background and lore of this world did not stand still tolkien was forever tweaking it making small changes here and there to clarify or improve things all of which of course made his son christopher tolkien's job a lot harder when it came to collating his work for publication his editorial comments are full of notes comparing different versions of a story that he had uncovered bellrocks are one of the many things that tolkien changed his mind on quite a lot to start with there seemed to have been lots of them powerful but not indestructible an early draft of the silmarillion talked of a host of a thousand balrogs and even in the published silmarillion there are references to lots of different bellrocks in this incarnation they were fierce and strong perhaps the size and shape of a large human fiery and armed with a whip or using its steel-like claws balrogs in this form seem to have been formidable foes but definitely defeatable there are several examples of mortals or elves killing them in the silmarillion but as we are talking about the belrog in the lord of the rings i think it's fair to treat that as tolkien did at that stage in the development of his legendarium and that as gandalf shouts to the rest of the fellowship is a foe beyond any of you that's a foe beyond high level human or dwarf warriors like boromir and gimli an elf like legolas or even the heir of a lendil himself aragorn tolkien added in a side note to the lord of the rings suggesting that there were at most seven or perhaps as few as three bellrocks in total one other we know the name of gothmog the lord of the balrogs for those familiar with the silmarillion he takes on and defeats some of the most famous names there he mortally wounds feyenoor kills fingon and captures hurin he is about to kill tour when ekthelion intervenes and the two of them kill each other it's a veritable roll call of first age heroes and gothmog is clearly the better of most or all of them during spain the balrog we know seems equally formidable it was clearly one of the maya that fell with morgoth then fought and survived through the first age of middle-earth at which point morgoth was defeated cast into the void morgoth's servants were also defeated or fled sauron fled into middle-earth as did at least one balrog this one it hid itself sleeping at the foundations of the world beneath karadras then millennia later as we're told the dwarves of moria dug too deep and awakened the bellrock if you'll excuse me for being a dwarf apologist here for a moment whereas the dwarfs accept that they dug too deep it's probably unfair to say that they dug too greedily digging was in their nature and they had no way of knowing that a balrog lived under moria a remnant from a war that they had largely kept out of anyway the dwarves did awaken the belrog and the balrog was too fearsome for them driving them out of kazadoom it killed king durin the sixth hence it becoming known as durian's bane and many others the dwarves tried a couple of times to retake their old home the attempt we are most familiar with was bailin's expedition which the fellowship discovered the remains of when they went through moria but by and large the belrog was left to roam and live there for centuries it's clear that the orcs who moved in afterwards were as scared of the bellrog as anyone else was it's only when gandalf stands and faces up to the belrog that it seems to meet a worthy match we've already noted that gandalf told the others in the fellowship that this opponent was beyond them and it's clear why he thinks so he does recognize it as a balrog when he sees it legolas and gimli do too but even before that gandalf experienced its power he placed a shutting spell on a side door that the fellowship fled through then he says something came into the chamber i felt it through the door and the orcs themselves were afraid and fell silent it laid hold of the iron ring and then it perceived me and my spell what it was i cannot guess but i have never felt such a challenge the counter spell was terrible it's nearly broke me for an instant the door left my control and began to open i had to speak a word of command that proved to greater strain the door burst into pieces something dark as a cloud was blocking out all the light inside and i was thrown backwards down the stairs its entrance at the bridge of kazadoom is even more impressive it was like a great shadow in the middle of which was a dark form of man shape maybe yet greater and a power and terror seems to be in it and to go before it it came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as if a cloud had bent over it then with a rush it deleted across the fissure the flames roared up to greet it and wreathed about it and a black smoke swirled in the air its streaming mane kindled and blazed behind it in its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire in its left it held a whip of many thongs i i wailed legolas a bell rogue a balrog has come gimli stared with wide eyes durham's bane he cried and letting his axe fall he covered his face a balrog mattered gandalf now i understand he faltered and leaned heavily on his staff what an evil fortune and i am already weary legolas wales gimli lets his axe fall and even gandalf falters if we want a hint of how powerful this balrog is this should be enough its very presence causes even the doubtiest and hardiest of heroes to falter its counter spell to gandalf was too strong for him when the two of them fought it was evidently a close thing looking through the timelines tolkien gives us the battle lasted a total of ten days falling down into the water at the bottom of the abyss in the dark tunnels beneath the roots of the mountain climbing the stair to the top of the mountain then finally an epic confrontation there gandalf doesn't say much of what happened but it seems that the elements were on his side ice fell like rain on the fiery bell rock we're told and eventually gandalf cast him down and his body broke the mountainside where he smote it in its ruin but gandalf also died given the length of the battle and the outcome it's probably fair to say that the two of them were evenly matched both being maya this makes sense of course not all maya are equal sauron and saraman at their peak were both probably more powerful than that version of gandalf although gandalf himself came back stronger as gandalf the white others were weaker radagast for example and it was definitely beyond the reach of even the greatest mortal heroes of the age which makes the belrog durin's bane fearsome in the extreme strong magical commanding and inducing fear in almost everyone among a handful of the most powerful beings in middle earth tolkien presents durham's bane as a relic from the time of legends in middle earth this wasn't just a big monster to face our heroes it was so much more a nightmare from the past the only thing the fellowship could do was run the enemy they faced was greater than any other physical threat that they would face in the entire journey more than the ring wraiths shelob or the armies of sauron we know the story of the lord of the rings so well these days that we almost take this part of it for granted the appearance of the balrog and gandalf's death but to readers when it was first published this was intended to be a huge shock a creature so terrible the fellowship cannot stand against it and its most powerful member killed less than a third of the way through the story but taking a step back gandalf had to stop the belrog not just to let the rest of the fellowship escape but because this was a foe of a level not dissimilar to the others middle-earth faced he was a maya like sauron and sarah man immortal and terrible if gandalf hadn't stopped him he would have been a threat not just to the denizens of the misty mountains but all of middle earth a fiery relic from the age of legends and nightmares but i told you i'd say a bit more about skillshare who sponsored this video skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people you can explore new skills deepen existing passions and get lost in creativity on this channel we love great stories and i always want to encourage new storytellers and if you want to learn about the craft of writing or improve the skills you already have then skillshare is a great place to start i'd recommend descriptive writing crafting vivid immersive scenes by kathy fish it's packed full of great tips to make your writing crackle with life letting the reader see feel hear and experience life in your world immersing them in your writing skillshare also has ad-free classes across a whole range of other creative areas like writing design and animation and that's all for only ten dollars a month and i said i had an offer for you the first 1 000 people to click the link in the description will get a free trial of skillshare premium membership so click on the link and unleash your creativity if you'd like to see more lord of the rings videos please click on the link on the left of your screen or if you'd like to support this channel or 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Channel: In Deep Geek

Views: 774,869

Keywords: in deep geek, deep geek, lord of the rings, the lord of the rings, lotr, tolkien, middle earth, balrog lord of the rings, the balrog, balrog, powers, gandalf

Id: F_DpjEhufhM

Length: 12min 56sec (776 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 02 2021