rocky41_7

Anon, if you're one of the anons who's been here before, you ask some very interesting questions.

As with some of my past answers I think there are a few viable options.

a) You nailed it and Durin's Bane just did not really have much personal motivation or ambition, so without a leader he was directionless, but once Durin VI and then the Fellowship intruded on "his" territory, he was moved to action.

b) He was asleep, possibly dormant after the War of Wrath, and awakened by the activities of the Dwarves of Khazad-dum, and then later further disturbed by the Fellowship and the Orcs following them.

c) He had been weakened enough by Melkor's defeat/possibly injuries he received during the War of Wrath that he did not want to venture out into the world, but again, was still willing or motivated to defend what he saw as "his" space in Moria, either against Durin VI or the Fellowship.

The Tolkien Gateway appears to support (b), stating:

"For more than five millennia, the Balrog hibernated in his deep hiding place at the roots of the mountains in Khazad-dûm. He remained undisturbed throughout the Second Age and most of the Third, before the mithril-miners of dwarf-King Durin VI awoke him in T.A. 1980." (Tolkien Gateway, entry: Durin's Bane, section: Awakening and the Third Age)

But I pulled out my copy of The Return of the King to check the citation on this statement, and while it does say in the timeline of the Third Age that "A Balrog awoke" and slew Durin VI, it does not mention what Durin's Bane was doing prior to this. Appendix B says:

"1980: The Witch-King comes to Mordor and there gathers the Nazgul. A Balrog appears in Moria, and slays Durin VI." (Page 1087, 2020 hardback ed.)

So I'm not sure if Durin's Bane being "asleep" or "hibernating" during the Second Age is actual canon, or just an assumption/interpretation of the person who wrote that section of his article.

However, I do find it a plausible scenario. To your point, it seems unlikely he was just chilling down there for 5,000 years. Then again, time passes differently for Ainur, so it's not impossible. Most of Melkor and Sauron's creations seem to run rampant without direction, causing mayhem and destruction in their wake as their MO though, so I feel like if Durin's Bane had been awake, he would have made his presence known.

Furthermore, Gandalf himself uses the phrasing "awoke/awakened" when referencing the causes of Khazad-dum's downfall and the actions of the Dwarves, which I feel supports theory (b). The way Khazad-dum's destruction is framed certainly seems to evoke that they had disturbed a slumbering evil which might have otherwise continued to lay dormant.

I also think that Sauron and Saruman are perhaps exceptional in their ambition. They are both portrayed as extremely driven and ambitious and become over time very fixated on the growth of their own power and their own self-promotion. I'm not sure if this necessarily holds true for every Maia who was in service to Melkor or Sauron. For example, neither Gothmog nor Thuringwethil seem to have the same drive. Frankly, Gandalf and Radagast, while not layabouts, do not seem nearly that ambitious either, being more content to just explore Middle-earth and learn what they can, helping people along the way. So these may just be quirks of character, as with people.

As to whether rehabilitation is possible--that's a tougher question. Tolkien seems to imply, in my view, that the turning of a Maia to a Balrog is an irreversible kind of corruption. Why else is it that some of them are Balrogs, but others, like Sauron and Thuringwethil, are not? Sauron is offered a chance at redemption at the end of the War of Wrath, but there's no mention of the Balrogs. That could be because there were no Balrogs around, being either dead, dormant, or in hiding, but it may also be because they were too far gone. It may also be that they were offered it, but it wasn't mentioned because they were not as plot-relevant as Sauron, but I feel Tolkien would have at least dropped a sentence or two on it if they were.

But Tolkien also repeatedly emphasizes that anyone is capable of change, although they may not choose to do it. That's why Melkor and Sauron and Grima and plenty of others who we think perhaps should not have gotten a second chance got one anyway. So I'm not sure I would entirely rule out that Balrogs are capable of reforming and perhaps returning to their original Maiar state, but I would imagine it's very unlikely. However, if a Balrog asked for the chance to repent and change, I’m sure Manwe would allow it.

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