>
It's a while since I read the books, but doesn't Glorfindelscare off a
few Nazgul by himself in the Hobbit?
RD: No. Not in the Hobbit nor in Lord of the Rings. I wonder
if you are
thinking of an earlier Glorfindel, who in the Silmarillion
slew a Balrog,
altho he died doing it.
In the battle of gondolin, many balrogs were killed. Gondolin (which I think
meant 'hidden city') was the last major city to be taken off the elves in
the first age. The elves had been preparing for a battle for a long time,
but the presence of dragons (that crashed thru the walls) helped set up an
elven defeat (treason by a high-ranking elf also played a part). Since
Morgoth was expected a tough battle, he used a far number of orcs, balrogs,
and dragons.
(a human) killed about 6 by himself. Glorfindel did indeed kill a balrog
when fighting on a mountain pass (they had escaped the city, and was
advancing to the rear at the time). Glorfindel easily won the battle, but
the balrog grapped Glorfindel's hair and dragged him to his death when it
fell.
The battle of Gondolin was the first of the middle earth stories that
tolkien wrote, and Tolkien later said that he wanted to reduce the number of
balrogs being killed (so they could be as tough as the one in the LoTR).
And yes, tolkien did have a habit of reusing names. If caused me some
confusion since elves live forever, so its hard to work out if the legolas
in the first age is the same legolas in the LoTR (to which the answer is
no).
ยทยทยท
From my faded memory I seem to remember about a dozen balrogs falling. Turin
Richard.
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