Bye Bye Balrogs

[Aiwendil]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Moderator
Posts: 53</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: Bye Bye Balrogs

&lt;&lt;In any case we cannot keep the thousands&gt;&gt;

&lt;Why not?
On what basis are you stating this?
And is the statement of at most 7 being stretched beyond intent?&gt;

Even if the number 7 is disregarded (which we cannot so easily do), this indicates that later on JRRT was thinking of the Balrogs as being FAR less numerous. It appears also that the importance and the power of the Balrogs increased between the Lost Tales and the later Silmarillion (I believe Michael Martinez did an essay on this, and I doubt there's anything I could add to his argument, so check for it at suite 101 if you like).


&lt;What later wars?
Did you mean earlier wars?&gt;

No; I mean later wars. The War of the Powers was the war that ended in the long siege of Utumno, before the Quendi were summoned to Valinor. If any of the 7 Balrogs died there (and I agree, some must have) then we have very few Balrogs to work with in the War of the Jewels.



</p>