Balrog Breaking and Entering

[Mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by Ibrîniðilpathânezel

I have often wondered about the "nameless things" that are even older than Sauron. Did Gandalf mean that literally, or merely in terms of their existence in Middle-earth? If they are literally older than Sauron, they would have to be some form of Ainur, since Tolkien never mentions that Eru made anything related to Ea before he made the Valar and Maiar. If they're merely older than Sauron in that they were in Middle-earth before he took up permanent residence there, I would be inclined to think that they were more of Melkor's "experiments." He may have planted them well below the surface of ME so as to avoid the notice of the Valar, sort of strange weapons in reserve (or perhaps even stranger time-bombs). Whatever they were, in fleeing the War of Wrath, the Balrog of Moria may simply have high-tailed it into the tunnels, not even knowing where he would end up, so long as it was somewhere he could avoid being noticed, and captured or destroyed.

Hope that made sense. I'm still on pins and needles waiting to find out if my husband will still have a job at the end of the month. They were supposed to tell him two weeks ago, but now it's probably going to be later this week. Danged Balrogs still exist in the modern world, I guess.

Nice points, Ibri!

It could be a combination of both--after all, the Balrogs themselves are Maiar who were then persuaded into the service of Melkor (with the notable exception of Arien). And considering that we have sea-Maiar (Osse and Uinen, and possibly "The River Woman"), air-Maiar (the Suruli), and fire-Maiar (the Balrogs and Arien); why shouldn't there be earth-Maiar to create all kinds of cool tunnels?