Balrog and the One ring

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Drognan

More I think of it, more it seems to me like a carefull planed attack.
First, Watcher tries to grab Frodo and the Ring, after that blocks the gate and traps the Company inside. Company is allowed to proceed into Moria and then attacked when already tired from long walk in the dark.
First orcs attack and wear the defense, and then Master comes for prize.

I've actually toyed with the idea that the Balrog was the "spirit" of Caradhras, which sensed the One and wanted to drive them to enter the Mines. A theory is all it is, though.

Like Pippin dropping the stone into the well, alerting the orcs, Boromir disturbed the Watcher by throwing a rock into the lake. It's difficult to say whether the Company would have been attacked if they had not announced their presence so.

Originally Posted by Drognan

[As for whether the Orcs were under its control, judging by the fact that at its presence all the Orcs were terrified of the 'ghâsh' (Orcish word for 'fire', in reference to the Balrog), I find it unlikely that they were under its command.

It is odd that if orcs were so disturbed by fire and not under Balrog's control, why do they live so close to so terrifying neighbour. Dwarfs are gone, they could move on...

Well, the Orcs of the Red Eye were terrified of the Nazgûl, but still obeyed their commands. The orcs weren't necessarily afraid of fire, anyway. What of the goblins that set afire the trees in which Gandalf, Bilbo, and the Dwarves had climbed in The Hobbit?

And I think that when Gandalf overheard one of the orcs say ghâsh, they could simply have been talking about the plan to trap the Fellowship with the fire below. That doesn't mean they feared it.