Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs | Tolkien Explained

He is among the greatest maiar to serve the Dark Lord Morgoth. Taking on a  dreadful hue in his servitude, he would be the lord of his kind and would  personally kill two High Kings of the Noldor. Today, on Nerd of the Rings, we cover  the life of Gothmog, the Lord of Balrogs.

Like all balrogs, Gothmog was originally one of  the great Ainur created by Eru Iluvatar. It is likely that he, along with all future  balrogs joined Melkor as he sewed his discord within the Music that created the  world itself. Tolkien describes the maiar, like Gothmog, who fell into the service  of the dark lord in The Silmarillion: .

. . of the Maiar many were drawn to [Melkor's]  splendour in the days of his greatness, and remained in that allegiance down into his  darkness; and others he corrupted afterwards to his service with lies and treacherous gifts. 

Dradful among these spirits were the Valaraukar, the scourges of fire that in Middle-earth  were called the Balrogs, demons of terror. In the early days of Arda, these maiar  took on a form of shadow and flame, and after Melkor destroys the Two Lamps - the  first source of light for the world - they gather with Melkor in his first fortress  of Utumno. During the ensuing Battle of the Powers between Melkor and the Valar, Utumno  is destroyed and Melkor captured.

The balrogs, along with Sauron, would hide in the pits of  Melkor’s secondary fortress of Angband in YT 1099. There, Gothmog and his balrogs would await the  return of their master for nearly 4000 years. When Morgoth returns to Middle-earth in YT 1495,  the great spider-like creature Ungoliant is ready to destroy Morgoth for withholding the silmarils  from her insatiable appetite.

Morgoth’s cry is heard by his balrogs, who are still hiding  in Angband, and they travel to his aid in Lammoth like a tempest of fire. Here, we see  the balrogs wield one of their iconic weapons, whips of flame, which they use to destroy  Ungoliant’s webs and cause her to flee. While the balrogs are well known to have been  maiar, the same category of being as the wizards, it’s interesting to note that Tolkien  at one time imagined their origin quite differently.

In some of his earliest writings of  Middle-earth, collected in The Book of Lost Tales, Gothmog himself is referred to as a son  of Melko (the original name of Melkor). It was only later that Tolkien discarded the  idea that the Valar would have children, and instead made the balrogs fallen maiar. Returning to the story, at this point,  nearing the dawn of the First Age, it’s entirely possible and even likely that the elves  knew nothing of the balrogs of Morgoth.

Indeed, they knew very little of the Battle of  the Powers that occurred in the spring of their existence and had no direct contact  with the demons themselves. Their first would come in the Dagor-nuin-Giliath, when  Feanor’s followers arrive in Middle-earth. Arriving via the stolen Teleri ships in YT  1497, they make their way up the Firth of Drngist.

They pass into the lands of Hithlum  and make camp on the northern shore of Lake Mithrim. There, they are attacked. Orcs  of Morgoth greatly outnumber the elves, but the Noldor, who were still empowered by  the Light of Valinor defeated their foes.

In the aftermath of this battle, Feanor in his  wrath pursues a small group of surviving orcs across the plain of Ard-Galen toward Angband. In  this moment, with his enemy upon his doorstep, Morgoth sends out his balrogs. These demons  come forth out of Thangorodrim.

Their hearts were of fire, but they were cloaked in  darkness, and terror went before them. There upon the confines of Dor Daedeloth,  the land of Morgoth, Fëanor was surrounded, with few friends about him. Long he fought  on, and undismayed, though he was wrapped in fire and wounded with many wounds; but at the  last he was smitten to the ground by Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs….

There Feanor would have  perished, had not his sons in that moment come up with force to his aid; and the  Balrogs left him, and departed to Angband. Feanor is mortally wounded, and with his death,  Gothmog kills his first High King of the elves. The balrogs would next be seen in the Dagor  Bragollach in 455 FA.

After a period of 400 years when the elves lay siege to Angband,  Morgoth breaks the siege - sending out rivers of flame as the Iron Mountains spewed fire and  fumes. Gothmog and his balrogs are once again unleashed alongside multitudes of orcs and a  fully-grown Glaurung, first of the dragons. It is a decisive victory for Morgoth’s forces  as many elves are slaughtered in the chaos.

Seeing what he believed to be the beginning  of the downfall of his people, the High King Fingolfin challenges Morgoth to single combat.  While Morgoth would kill Fingolfin in the duel, he would be injured in the foot by the blade of  the mighty elf lord. From this moment onward, we see Morgoth would stay within his  stronghold and instead send his balrogs, orcs, and dragons to fight his battles.

The next such battle would be the Nirnaeth  Arnoediad, where a great alliance of elves, men, and dwarves seeks to make a final  war upon Morgoth. In this battle, Gothmog is named the high-captain of Angband,  solidifying his position as one of Morgoth’s most important servants. As mentioned  earlier, Sauron is also under Morgoth’s servitude at this time, but it is Gothmog who  leads his armies in war.

It seems that Sauron, like his master, takes on commanding roles  that don’t involve direct combat. Instead, his works of the first age are often  using his trickery and sorcery. As for Gothmog and the Nirnaeth, he would come face to face with yet  another High King as the battle rages on… But now in the western battle Fingon and  Turgon were assailed by a tide of foes thrice greater than all the force that was left to them. 

Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, high-captain of Angband, was come; and he drove a dark wedge between  the Elvenhosts, surrounding King Fingon, and thrusting Turgon and Húrin aside towards  the Fen of Serech. Then he turned upon Fingon. That was a grim meeting.

At last Fingon  stood alone with his guard dead about him; and he fought with Gothmog, until another Balrog  came behind and cast a thong of fire about him. Then Gothmog hewed him with his black axe,  and a white flame sprang up from the helm of Fingon as it was cloven. Thus fell the High  King of the Noldor; and they beat him into the dust with their maces, and his banner, blue and  silver, they trod into the mire of his blood.

Thus Gothmog kills his second High  King of the Noldor. After this feat, we are told Gothmog captures the man Hurin  alive by order of Morgoth. Though Hurin would kill 70 orcs and trolls as they attempt the  capture.

Eventually, Gothmog’s troll-guards capture Hurin. The Lord of Balrogs drags a bound  Hurin back to Angband to deliver to his master. While this account shows Gothmog weidling  a black axe, and we know also of their whips of flame and maces, we don’t see  the Lord of Balrogs wielding another of their weapons - magic.

In the Fellowship  of the Ring, Gandalf mentions that as he was putting a shutting spell on the door to  the Chamber of Mazarbul, the counter-spell was terrible and nearly broke him. While we  don’t see Gothmog wield such magic himself, there is no doubt it was within his power.  Perhaps I’ll make a future video on the powers of balrogs or maiar in general, but for now, let’s  conclude the story of the Lord of their kind… Gothmog would make one final appearance in  the Wars of Beleriand.

After the location of Gondolin is betrayed to Morgoth, he once again  sends Gothmog to lead his army. This force, comprised of orcs, balrogs, and dragons,  would come to the hidden city in 510 FA. Also within the Book of Lost Tales, we  find an account of Gothmog leading his force to the northern gate of Gondolin  and ordering them to pile their siege equipment against it.

The gate breaks from  the weight of this mass of iron and the city is breached. Gothmog’s army would bring  fire and destruction to the great elven kingdom. While not at Gothmog’s own hand, the  High King Turgon would die in this battle.

As for Gothmog himself, he would  come face to face with the elf lord Ecthelion. While the result of  the story remains in later writings, the most complete account of the battle  comes also from the Book of Lost Tales… Tuor stood then in the way of that  beast, but was sundered from Egalmoth, and they pressed him backward even to the  centre of the square nigh the fountain. There he became weary from the strangling  heat and was beaten down by a great demon, even Gothmog lord of Balrogs, son of Melko.

But  lo! Ecthelion, whose face was of the pallor of grey steel and whose shield-arm hung limp  at his side, strode above him as he fell, and that Gnome drove at the demon, yet did not  give him his death, getting rather a wound to his sword-arm that his weapon left his grasp.  Then leapt Ecthelion lord of the Fountain, fairest of the Noldoli, full at Gothmog even  as he raised his whip, and his helm that had a spike upon it he drove into that evil breast,  and he twined his legs about his foeman’s thighs; and the Balrog yelled and fell forward; but those  two dropped into the basin of the king’s fountain which was very deep.

There found that creature  his bane; and Ecthelion sank steel-laden into the depths, and so perished the lord of the  Fountain after fiery battle in cool waters. Thus ends Gothmog, the Lord of Balrogs.  With him would perish one other balrog in Fall of Gondolin - this one at the hands  of Glorfindel.

With two balrogs killed, it likely leaves at most five balrogs in the  service of Morgoth for the War of Wrath. While Tolkien originally envisioned armies of balrogs,  he later said that 3 or at most 7 ever existed. We know for certain only one balrog to survive  the climactic battle of the First Age - the one that would hide in the depths of the Misty  Mountains and come to be known as Durin’s Bane.

While Gothmog, greatest of balrogs would perish  in the pools of Gondolin, his name would appear once more in Tolkien’s works. In the Battle of  the Pelennor Fields in the Return of the King, we find the second in command behind the Witch-king  is one named Gothmog. In Peter Jackson’s films, this character was depicted as an orc chieftain. 

However, it is never explicitly stated what kind of being this Gothmog is. Many fans believe him  to be an orc or an uruk, though theories abound. Some say he could be a Black Numenorean like the  Mouth of Sauron.

Even more deep cut theories say he was a Boldog - which is a fallen maia that  takes the form of an orc. While I personally think an orc or uruk most likely, I do find it  interesting that the Third Age Gothmog could be a fallen maia like his namesake - though  he would be far lesser in power and rank. While the Gothmog of later history would likely  be wiped out with nearly all of Sauron’s forces at Minas Tirith, Gothmog the balrog would  be remembered in the legendary tales of the elves.

And the appearance of Durin’s Bane  in the Lord of the Rings would give us a mere inkling of the power and ferocity of their  Lord Gothmog, the greatest of their kind.