The Rings of Power: Balrog, What Is The Creature At The Bottom Of The Mithril Mine
The Rings of Power has just taken us deep into the Khazad-dûm mines, to reveal that there is not only a lot of Mithril there but also something very dangerous, which we can later see in the Lord of the Rings movies. In episode 7, Durin IV and Elrond decide to go against the king’s orders to stop digging for Mithril, thinking that if they find the right and safe way to get to it, they can save the elves and also enrich themselves. further into the kingdom, but they are discovered, and Elrond ends up exiled, while Duren appears to have been disinherited by his father.
Durin and Disa are convinced that the king is already very old and his lack of vision for the future is what leads him to make the decision not to help the elves (the Mithril can help them to recover the light of the Eldar), but we soon discovered that this is not exactly the case. The king seems to understand well that digging too deep can be dangerous, and his fears are confirmed (though not for him or Durin, but the audience) after The Rings of Power lets us see what’s at the bottom of the mine.
The Rings of Power: What is the Balrog?
Moira’s famous Balrog appears in the Peter Jackson movies when the Fellowship of the Ring must go deep into the mountain in search of a safer path. There, they are greeted by a fire monster that fights Gandalf and drags him into the depths while the rest of the company members escape and continue with their mission, thinking that they will never see the gray wizard again (although it doesn’t last long and Gandalf returns to tell what happened, now a more powerful white sorcerer).
Now, The Rings of Power confirms that this Balrog was already there a long time ago before Durin became the king of the dwarves. Tolkien’s stories say that the Balrog was Maiar first (beings created by the Valar, such as Gandalf and Sauron himself) and that they could use different weapons (such as the firewhip that this particular Balrog uses), but they decided to join Morgoth and the darkness and fought alongside him in the first battle against the elves and humans in the First Age (where Galadriel’s brother dies).
During the battle, many of the Balrog were defeated by their enemies, and this forces the few who survived to hide in the depths of Middle-earth, which is what leads one of them to an uncharted part of the Mines of Moria, where Mithril is found. The Balrog of Moria is asleep at the moment and although we were already shown that the Mithril digging is waking it up, it doesn’t become a danger until the Third Age, when the dwarves dig even deeper, freeing the monster and its ends. killing Durin VI and many of the dwarves, forcing the rest to leave the Khazad-dûm mines, which is why the Fellowship of the Ring finds it empty. The news of Balrog reaches different parts of the kingdom and that is why no one tries to claim the mines again, but the Fellowship of the Ring seems to know nothing of this, and that leads them to wake him up again and confront him, and that is how ends up destroyed by Gandalf.
