Okay, let's take a Balrog - say the one that Gandalf fought, and a dragon - day Smaug. List their fighting/power qualities.
In this corner we have Balrog, a big dark shadowy demon (maiar) which is made of fire, with huge wings, a sword of fire, and a whip. The balrog has horns, a toothy maw, two arms to wield sword and whip, and two legs on which to walk. It doesn't speak, but it not stupid. Fear goes before it.
In the other corner we have Smaug, a huge wyrm whose leathery skin is encrusted in gems (except for one spot), armed with breath of fire, not to mention sharp teeth, has a tail he can probably use to lethal effect, walks on four limbs, and has wings big enough to carry his body high and fast. And he can speak. He is clever and wise, and admittedly vain. Fear goes before him as well.
Okay. First off, the Fear that goes before them both is probably neutralized by the fact that both are tough beings; and if Fear does affect them, it's moot to say whose will do worse to the other.
Since the Balrog does not speak it will not attempt to take advantage of Smaug's vanity. Since Smaug is incredibly smart he knows the Balrog does not speak and wouldn't listen anyway, so he doesn't waste words on them.
They both see each other's wings, so they know they can both fly. So they're not going to avoid each other's weapons that way.
Smaug's fire breath can reach his enemy from a distance, whereas the Balrog's greatest weapon from a distance is its whip. Problem (as pointed out already): Smaug's won't do much against a fire-demon, so he must resort to teeth, limbs and tail.
The Balrog's whip will get to Smaug before Smaug can close in on the Balrog, so Balrog either tries to cut Smaug with the whip-tip (which it must know won't do much good) or tries to wrap Smaug up. Balrog being no dummy, it tries to wrap Smaug up.
Smaug gets wrapped around the maw (it being closest) before he can close in on Balrog. Teeth or immobilized. All four sets of claws come to bear. Balrog's whip being occupied, its fire-sword comes down.
Hmmm - here's an interesting question: can a Balrog fire-sword cut through dragon-hide? through gems? If Balrog's sword is a physical entity, my guess is that gems melt, but after repeated hits. Then dragon hide, being not as tough as gems, gets cut pretty quickly. If Balrog's fire-sword is a spiritual entity, discussion over. Smaug is wounded with each hit.
But if Balrog's fire-sword is only physical, Smaug has time. Can Smaug's claws scratch a Balrog raw enough to kill it? If an elf-lord could slay it without a magical sword, yes. (unless all elf-swords are by definition magical but then maybe dragon claws may be just as magical).
Then it may be that both Balrog and Smaug naturally use their wings and they plummet to earth and they both wham against bedrock and break whatever crust they crash against and both wind up dead.
There you have it, a draw.
But seriously (if this can be considered serious at all), it all does depend on how spiritual we consider Balrogs to be and dragons NOT to be. Maybe dragons are more spiritual than we're giving them credit for being....
Enough already. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
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