The Balrog is back! Or rather, one specific Balrog has appeared for the first time, at least as far as the Dwarves are concerned. In the Season 2 finale of The Rings of Power, before the credits even roll, this classic monster has returned — and fully lived up to its name.
But as with all things Rings of Power, there’s an unexpected twist here. The Balrog was always destined to do a very specific thing that would earn it a dreaded nickname. But at the end of Rings of Power Season 2, its nickname is fully earned, but the way this all plays out has a distinct canon twist. Here’s why the Balrog is exactly where it is supposed to be and why what it does at the top of this episode was always going to happen — even if this is a bit early.
Spoilers ahead for Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 8.
The Balrog emerges
Throughout the season, the Dwarves have been employing the power of the rings made for them by Sauron and Celebrimbor to search for treasure deeper in their mountain. Estranged from his father, Durin IV (Owain Arthur) has been worried that Durin III (Peter Mullan) has been corrupted by the power of the ring and, as a result, will only bring even more chaos to Khazad-dûm.
At the beginning of this episode, after his father shows him the potential to keep mining deeper and deeper into the mountain, Durin IV says “Take off the ring or I’ll take off the whole hand!” But, soon, he doesn’t need to, because out of the depths emerges a firey monster with massive curved horns, a flaming sword, and a whip of fire. This is one of the Balrogs, who, in the First Age were servants of Melkor/Morgoth before his defeat.
By the time of the Third Age — and the events of The Fellowship of the Ring — this specific Balrog was known as “Durin’s Bane,” and that’s because this one is infamous for having slayed a dwarf king named Durin. We’ve now seen this happen on screen! But is this the same Durin?
Durin’s Bane — but which one?
Since Season 1, The Rings of Power has played fast and loose with the ages and exact chronology of the Elves versus all the other races of Middle-earth. If the show played out exactly like The Silmarillion or the backstories in the appendices of The Return of the King, then certain characters could never meet, and the overall story of the Second Age would be hard to tell. And yet, for the most part, The Rings of Power has avoided creating composite characters, even if there have been some notable brand-new ones. (Adar is probably the most pivotal of the new characters this season.)
With the demise of Durin III in the Season 2 finale, however, it appears that The Rings of Power may be conflating the fate of Durin VI — three Durin descendants in the future — with the fate of his ancestor. In other words, in Tolkien’s text, it’s Durin VI, not Durin III who was slain by the Balrog, thus giving it the name “Durin’s Bane.” Seeing a king named Durin taken out by the Balrog in the opening of this episode is thrilling, of course, because it feels very accurate to the lore. And yet, technically, this is the wrong Durin.
So the question is now: In the alternate continuity of The Rings of Power, will a second dwarf named Durin be slain at some later date? Or has Durin III effectively, become the same character as Durin VI? Hopefully, for the sake of Durin IV’s descendants, this is the last dwarf to be taken out by a monster from the deep. It’s going to be several thousand years before Gandalf arrives to deal with this Balrog once and for all.
