The Balrog

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Originally Posted by LadyBrooke

It's just - and this is where I show myself to be just a teenager for all that I try to sound older - that Celeborn is one of my favorite characters (who I might have just a little bit of a crush on and I therefore get really upset when everybody is attacking him for his actions. I look at that scene in Lothlorien and what I see is somebody wise enough to admit to his mistakes the minute they are pointed out.

I admit, I never quite understood some of the fannish antipathy toward Celeborn. He did rather blurt out his criticism of Gandalf's plan for going through Moria, but not only did he apologize for it, it's rather understandable that an Elf who may well have seen Balrogs during the First Age might overreact at the announcement that not only has one been living virtually next door all these years, but it just took out a friend of the family. And we all have our favorite characters and will rise to their defense (as I'm sure many have already noted of me when it comes to Gandalf. Though in my case, it's more a role-model, mentorly thing, not a crush. )

That said, Galadriel's remark does indicate that Gandalf had plans of which no one else was aware, and Tolkien only occasionally deigned to give us clear insight as to why he did some of the things he did. Witness the story about the Quest of Erebor in both the appendices and UT, and the "piece of his mind" that he gives to Aragorn and the others after their reunion in Fangorn Forest. We just aren't ever told Gandalf's thoughts about going through Moria, other than that he had thought it might prove necessary. That there were other issues about such a journey under debate is shown through Aragorn's warnings and his attempts to dissuade Gandalf from going into the mines, his presentiments of personal danger for the Wizard. I should have liked to have heard one of their discussions over the matter in some greater detail; it might have cleared up the question of whether or not Gandalf was indeed aware of the presence of Balrog in the mines. But it would have had to be placed either outside the story, or in a reflection after the fact, else it might have given away what for many was a shocking turn of the plot, Gandalf's death.