The Grey Havens - Balrogs: Could Sauron Control the Balrog of Moria?

Could Sauron Control the Balrog of Moria?

From: Brenden Taylor

It has been commented on several pages that Sauron most likely could not control the Balrog of Moria, or any other few as existed elsewhere. We are told, after all that, "the Balrogs were destroyed, save some few that fled and hid themselves..." (Silmarillion, p.311) But of their ends we are not told speciffically. As to Sauron, given his position as 'the greatest servant of Morgoth, who had a part in all his plotting and scheming, was second only to Morgoth himself in evil'(Sil. p.26), and that he was the 'greatest and most trusted, and most perilous of Melkor's servants (Sil. p. 353), I do not think that there can be any doubt but what the Balrogs would recognize him as the heir apparent to Morgoth. After all he was Melkor's #1. The Balrogs have already been taking orders and following him since the First Age. Yes, they were both Maia, but as in the Valar, there are different levels or glory and power even within the same order. I believe that Sauron was one of the more powerful among the Maia, given the role he played for Melkor and himself through the ages. Also as evidence for his command of the Balrogs (and I would add dragons ,i.e. Smaug before his end) there is this passage from page 359 of the Silmarillion, concerning the state of things before Ar-Pharazon carried Sauron off with him:

The point about using Balrogs only to attack more powerful opponents is a good one, as is the conjecture that minus the Ruling Ring there was less of a heirarchal relationship. I would speculate that given the Balrogs proximity to Lothlorien, Sauron was waiting to recover the One Ring and then have it take out one of the last footholds of the Noldor in Middle Earth with the orc hordes of Moria. Assuming of course that he could control it. Given his charisma I still believe he likely had some high degree of influence on it even without the Ring. Also as a side note, since no other Balrogs or dragons were in evidence in the Final Battle, and since the script tells us point blank that at least at some point in the post-Morgoth era Sauron could still control these things, any other remaining nasties, sans Smaug and the Balrog of Moria, must have been destroyed by the armies of Gil-Galad and Elendil in the War of the Last Alliance, when he still had the Ring and unquestionably could still command them, or at least for the dragons, having survived the War, freed themselves from Sauron's control in the wake of the Ruling Ring's dissapearance. I justify that last statement in the face of my belief that Sauron did have some command over these creatures because on p. 371 it states there were dragons, plural, in the Fading Years before the Final Battle. One would be Smaug, who bought it over Laketown. That leaves at least one other who was MIA at the last battle. I believe it logical to assume there were multiple Barogs and dragons in service the early days of Sauron because as mentioned, more than one Balrog survived the War of Wrath, and the Seven Rings were either destroyed with the Dwarf Hoardes by dragons (Sil. p. 358), or retaken by Sauron.

I now end my rambling.

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