Really? Becasue the way it looks to me, Morgoth won - he defeated the elves of Middle-Earth and their human allies. The only reason he ended up they way he ended up is that his enemies essentially broke the rules they had followed for centuries of war.
Hi-jack but why didn’t Sauron recruit the Balrog? That would have helped move things along.
Because they were both Maiar, and a Balrog wouldn’t have served someone of equal rank.
I’m not sure he was aware of its existence, or that it was still alive after all this time. Gandalf certainly was surprised to run into it.
A powerplay case could also probably be made : Gandalf himself had a real hard time fighting it, and only survived through deus ex machina. I doubt Sauron would have liked having a being dangerous to himself under his command, especially in his weakened, Ring-less state.
Plus I’d say he didn’t really have a need for it - he had enough orcs, trolls and human allies to take Middle-Earth twice over as soon as he found his stupid Ring.
I don’t get the ball-hog joke, or even recognize that it’s a joke. Anyone care to explain?
- sturmhauke, whose geekiness resides elsewhere
It’s a basketball reference, it’s ironic that such a comparison would come up in geek fueled fan-wankery like this.
In the Harvard Lampoon spoof “Bored of the Rings”, the Balrog in Moria becomes the Ball-Hog.
Humble Servant was being very clever, integrating Tolkien, parody and sports in one. Well played.
Si
. . . with “Villanova” written in cruel runes upon its chest.
To complete the loop, I always figured it somewhat as Humble Servant mentioned it; that is, the earth giants were creatures of the earth and not easily swayed. (This presents the potential difficulty that trolls were also creatures of the earth, but they were animated by Melkor, so that explains their allegiance.)
RR
I though trolls were debased ents, just as orcs were debased elves.
That’s not QUITE in “The Balrog had wings!” territory, but it’s close. It’s one of those things that I think got mentioned in the letters and maybe in a draft or two but was never actually addressed in the text of any of the extant canon.
Sauron didn’t conscript the stone giants because hne heaard they were a bunch of blimps. And you know how Sauron feels about blimps.
No, absolutely not. Trolls were made in mockery of Ents but were clearly not related. Orcs were probably debased Elves but that is up to some debate.
You have confused posters. You are thinking of **Scylla **I believe.
Actually in the Silmarillion it states somewhere that the Elves believe that Orcs were made from debased Elves.
But I though Morgoth - and evil in general - could only distort, not create.
That very thought apparently bugged Tolkien to the end of his life. However, where ever Trolls came from, they were not related to Ents. Some thoughts are that not even all trolls were related. The Stone Trolls, Cave Trolls and even Ice Trolls (mentioned in talking about Helm) were from the days of Morgoth and perhaps a creation of Morgoth’s similar to Aulë’s creation of the Dwarves though without ever gaining the gift of freewill from Eru. The Black Trolls or Olog-Hai were thought to perhaps be a huge breed of trolls bred by Sauron and this was why the sun did not turn them to stone.
I was talking about the trolls, though. The elves were just in the sentence I replied to.
Don’t forget the giant nassty spideresses–Ungoliant was recruited but a free agent, so to speak–not conscripted.
And all y’all are too kind–pepsis and benzedrines all around.
But the kudos bleong to Terrifel–Bergmann’s Rule and woodwoses, people.
But Schlob did end up as Sorhed’s ex…
Whoops, mixing Legendaria, sorry!
You’re conflating the Harvard Codex with the Oxford Manuscript. It’s an easy error to make.
The Thesaurus made him do it. 
Ah, but was there ever another Legendaria so wrong but so right? “Ah Unicef! Cle-arasil!” (I think it’s better when you can cheat to make it scan–though not justified by the Codex.)
**Volume 67 of HOMES–the Hahvaard Codex–every comma analyzed.