Know what? 15 ft is huge! I mean, just try to get your mind around something big enough to hit its head on the ceiling of a normal modern building--that's only 8-10 ft there.
I think that past a certain point, the human brain just can't really grasp very large sizes or numbers, unless they have something to compare them to. Just imagine looking up at a Balrog. How far do you have to crane your neck before you get scared?
And if one little hobbit could send Shelob running with her entrails between her legs, eight 10-15' Balrogs would definitely make Ungoliant think twice about continuing to fight.
On the other side of the coin, I don't think living in the mines would have been one of the problems for large size. Tolkien said in the Hobbit (I think) that even the large goblins went along very quickly bent over using arms as well as legs. Balrogs could probably do something similar at need.
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Do you really want to know / Or are you a little scared,
Afraid that God is not exactly what you'd have Him be?
--OC Supertones, "Wilderness"
"Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter." -- Max Beerbohm
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