I was browsing Fellowship of the Ring last night and I was reading this section where the Company had to go thorugh the Mines of Moria. Towards the end of the trek, the heroes were beset by a host of orcs and a balrog. They were dismayed at the appearance of the balrog.
Just what is a balrog, in Tolkien's Middle Earth? I gather that it is some sort of shadowed creature (demon?) with a magical fire sword and a whip. It is also capable of casting spells as earlier, at Balin's tomb, Gandalf tried to seal a dorr magically to hold off the enemies, but the balrog was able to counter his spell.

Welcome to the Wonderful World of J.R.R. Tolkien - the Founder of Fantasy Writing!

The Balrog (aka Demon of Terror) is the baddest of the bad in Tolkien's world. It is the only creature that could stand toe-to-toe with Gandalf and have a very good chance of killing him.

To give you an AD&D perspective, Dragon magazine promoted a figurine many years ago that was a combination of a Balrog and an Ancient Red Dragon.
In the description, it said that the dragon was basically scared to death to share it's body with the Balrog and the Balrog was furious at the "limitations" this new form imposed on it.

So consider how powerful it must be if it considers an Ancient Red Dragon to be a much weaker/inferior creature.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Hayashi:
Just what is a balrog, in Tolkien's Middle Earth?... with a magical fire sword and a whip. It is also capable of casting spells as earlier, at Balin's tomb, Gandalf tried to seal a dorr magically to hold off the enemies, but the balrog was able to counter his spell.<hr></blockquote> Hayashi, IMO Balrogs only have minor spell casting abilitys. Their power lies in magical resistance and flaming emulation of prey. Whipping you to draw you into a burn of evil. The sword merely becomes what it is depending upon the ability of the user. I would say that if I ever had a racial enemy.. the Balrog would be tied with the Vampire to me. Bad dudes. Orcs know a leader when they see them. So a evil Balrog has no problem attracting these types.

A Balrog is a very powerful and ancient demon. More details of Balrog's can be found in the Silmarillion. Incidentally, the balor tanar'ri of AD&D was modelled after Tolkien's Balrog, all the way down to the sword of fire and the many-tailed whip.

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Balor (True Tanar'ri): The greatest and most terrible of the true tanar'ri, the balors are the undisputed terrors of the Abyss. They are the very motivation behind the tanar'ri involvement in the Blood War. In every sense of the word, balors are the quintessential tanar'ri. They derive great pleasure from the suffering of others and go out of their way to torment lesser beings and cause them pain.
Balors are repulsive and loathsome to behold. They are towering humanoids with deep, dark red skin. They have huge wings that propel them with unnatural speed and agility. They have long, wicked claws and grotesque fangs that drip with venom. Balors are commonly surrounded by searing flames.

Combat: Balors attack with their great fists for 2-12 points of damage. Anyone struck by a balor's fists must roll a saving throw vs. spells with a -6 penalty or flee in terror for 1-6 turns.
Balors much prefer weapons to fists in combat. Each carries a great sword that looks like a bolt of lightning. In the hands of a balor, these swords are vorpal and can detect evil/good in a 30 foot radius. Any creature that picks up a balor's sword, regardless of whether its skin actually touches it, immediately suffers 10-60 points of damage and must roll a saving throw vs. spells, or die immediately.
Balors also use a great whip with many tails. These whips will inflict but 1-4 points of damage per hit. However, they magically wrap the victim, allowing the balor to draw the victim into his ever-present bodily flames. Once dragged into the flames, the victim suffers 4-24 points of damage per round. Escaping the whip requires a successful one-half strength check. When the whip holds a victim, it cannot be used in other attacks.
Balors may use one of the following additional magical powers at the 20th level of spell use per round at will: detect invisibility (always active), detect magic (always active), dispel magic, fear, pyrotechnics, read magic, suggestion, symbol (any type), telekinesis, and tongues.
They may also gate 1-8 least, 1-6 lesser, 1-4 greater, or 1 true tanar'ri to their location. The gate is always successful but may only be used once per hour.
Balors are completely immune to gas. If a balor is slain in the Abyss, it explodes in a blinding flash of light, inflicting 50 points of damage to everything in a 100-foot radius around the creature (saving throw vs. spell for half damage).

Habitat/Society: Balors exist for one purpose only: to wage the Blood War. They are driven by the strongest primal desire to fight and will command whole legions of beings into battle.
Balors also recognize a subtle but important aspect of the War: the prime material plane. They will often make pacts with mortals to perform services for the purpose of gaining power in the prime material plane. Balors know that the more followers or allies they can gain in the prime material, the more power they will have there.
There are at least 24 balors known to exist. The creatures do not inhabit any particular area of the Abyss, but wander about forming armies for battle with the baatezu (q.v.).

Ecology: There is nothing more important in the Abyss than the Blood War. The balor, in a sense, are the Blood War from a tanar'ri perspective, the ecology of the Abyss, driving the creation of new beings and mandating their survival.
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[ 11-08-2001: Message edited by: Memnoch ]</p>

Here's a link for the picture out of the Silmarillion as to what a Balrog looked like:

http://www.spowers.net/Tolkien/TolkP...lk-balrog.html