Editing Balrog (section)

== Real-world origins ==

=== ''Sigelwara'' ===

{{#tag:imagemap|
File:Tolkien's Sigelwara Etymologies.svg{{!}}thumb{{!}}upright={{{upright|1.7}}}{{!}}right{{!}}{{{caption|Imagemap with clickable links. Tolkien's ''[[Sigelwara Land|Sigelwara]]'' etymologies, leading to major strands of [[Tolkien's legendarium|his Legendarium]] including Balrogs and also the [[Silmaril]]s and [[Harad]]rim.<ref name="Sigelwara Land" group=T/>{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=48–49}} }}}

rect  10  10  170  200 [[Silmaril]]
<!--rect 300  10  500  200 [[Balrog]]-->
rect 700  10  890  200 [[Harad]]

rect 250 200  650  350 [[Sigelwara Land]]
rect 650 200  900  350 [[Aethiopia]]

rect  10  400  400  500 [[Sól (Germanic mythology)]]<!-- same as Sigel -->
rect 500  400  890  500 [[hearth]]

rect  10  510  200  665 [[sowilō]] <!-- Sun-rule -->
rect 210  510  450  665 [[Seal (emblem)|seal]] <!-- ''Sigillum'' -->

rect  10   10  900  675 [[commons:File:Tolkien's Sigelwara Etymologies.svg]]
}}

Tolkien was a professional [[philologist]], a scholar of comparative and historical [[linguistics]].<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#165 to [[Houghton Mifflin]], 30 June 1955 }}</ref> The Balrog and other concepts in his writings derived from the Old English word ''Sigelwara'', used in texts such as the ''[[Codex Junius]]'' to mean "Aethiopian".<ref name="Exodus">{{cite web |title=Junius 11 "Exodus" ll. 68-88 |url=http://mcllibrary.org/Junius/exodus.html |publisher=The Medieval & Classical Literature Library |access-date=1 February 2020}}</ref>{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=54}} He wondered why the Anglo-Saxons would have had a word with this meaning, conjecturing that it had formerly had a different meaning. He [[Emendation (textual)|emended]] the word to ''Sigelhearwan'', and in his essay "[[Sigelwara Land]]",<ref name="Sigelwara Land" group=T>[[J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkien, J. R. R.]], "[[Sigelwara Land]]" [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43625831 ''Medium Aevum'' Vol. 1, No. 3. December 1932] and [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43625895 ''Medium Aevum'' Vol. 3, No. 2. June 1934.]</ref> explored in detail the two parts of the word. He stated that ''Sigel'' meant "both ''sun'' and ''jewel''", the former as it was the name of the Sun [[rune]] [[*sowilō]] (ᛋ), the latter connotation from [[Latin]] ''sigillum'', a [[Seal (emblem)|seal]].{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=48-49}} He decided that ''Hearwa'' was related to Old English ''heorð'', "[[hearth]]", and ultimately to Latin ''carbo'', "soot". He suggested from all this that ''Sigelhearwan'' implied "rather the sons of [[Muspelheim|Muspell]] than of [[Hamitic|Ham]]",{{efn|Tolkien meant that the ''Sigelhearwan'' were not just dark-skinned but also fiery.}} a class of demons in Northern mythology "with red-hot eyes that emitted sparks and faces black as soot".<ref name="Sigelwara Land" group=T/> The Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] states that this both "helped to naturalise the Balrog" and contributed to the [[Silmaril]]s, which combined the nature of the sun and jewels.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=49, 54, 63}} The Aethiopians suggested to Tolkien the [[Harad]]rim, a dark southern race of men.<ref name="CT Sigelwara Land" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1989}}, ch. 25, pp. 435, 439 note 4 (comments by [[Christopher Tolkien]])</ref>{{sfn|Lee|Solopova|2016|pp=66–67}}

=== Old Norse, Old English ===

A real-world etymological counterpart for the word "Balrog" existed long before Tolkien's languages, in [[Norse mythology]]; an epithet of the [[Norse god]] [[Odin]] was ''Báleygr'', "fire-eyed".<ref>''[[Grímnismál]]'', stanzas 46-48</ref>

Joe Abbott, writing in ''[[Mythlore]]'', notes that the Old Norse ''[[Voluspa]]'' mentions that the fire-demon [[Surt (mythology)|Surt]] carries both a sword and a ''sviga laevi'', a deadly whipping-stick or switch; he suggests that it is "a short step" from that to the Balrog's flaming whip.<ref name="Abbott 1989"/> Abbott makes a connection, too, with the ''Beowulf'' poet's account of the monster [[Grendel]]: he notes that Tolkien wrote that Grendel was "physical enough in form and power, but vaguely felt as belonging to a different order of being, one allied to the malevolent 'ghosts' of the dead", and compares this with Aragorn's description of the Balrog as "both a shadow and a flame, strong and terrible".<ref name="Abbott 1989"/>

=== Moria and the Battle of Maldon ===
{{further|The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son}}

Tolkien felt acutely the error made by the English commander, the [[ealdorman]] [[Byrhtnoth]], at the [[Battle of Maldon]], allowing the [[Vikings]] to step ashore and win the battle. Alexander Bruce, in ''Mythlore'', comments that Tolkien may have used Gandalf's battle with the Balrog on the narrow bridge in Moria to "correct the behavior of the self-serving Byrhtnoth through the actions of the self-less Gandalf".<ref name="Bruce 2007">{{cite journal |last=Bruce |first=Alexander M. |year=2007 |title=Maldon and Moria: On Byrhtnoth, Gandalf, and Heroism in The Lord of the Rings |journal=Mythlore |volume=26 |issue=1 |at=Article 11 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol26/iss1/11}}</ref> Bruce notes that the Tolkien scholar [[Janet Brennan Croft]] also contrasts the two leaders.<ref name="Bruce 2007"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Croft |first=Janet Brennan |author-link=Janet Brennan Croft |title=War and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien |publisher=[[Praeger Paperback|Praeger]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-31332-592-2 |pages=93–94}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+  Alexander Bruce's comparison of Gandalf's stand in Moria with Byrhtnoth's action in the Battle of Maldon<ref name="Bruce 2007"/>
|- 
! Leader !! Encounter !! Action !! Result 
|-
| [[Byrhtnoth]] || [[Battle of Maldon]] || Allows [[Viking]] enemy across causeway || Army defeated, Byrhtnoth killed, English pay [[Danegeld]] tribute
|-
| [[Gandalf]] || [[Bridge of Khazad-dûm]] || Holds the bridge against the Balrog || Both Gandalf and the Balrog fall into the abyss. The [[Fellowship of the Ring (characters)|Fellowship]] escape.
|}

=== The fall of Gondolin and the fall of Troy ===
{{further|The Fall of Gondolin}}

There are multiple parallels between the ''Fall of Gondolin'' and the fall of [[Troy]], as told in the ''[[Iliad]]'', but again the tales differ. The Elf Ecthelion leads the charge against the Orcs, and fights Gothmog, the greatest Balrog; they wound each other and both fall into the king's fountain in Gondolin; both drown. Bruce compares this to how [[Aeneas]] rallies the Trojans, but fails, and sees king [[Priam]] perish.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bruce |first=Alexander M. |year=2012 |title=The Fall of Gondolin and the Fall of Troy: Tolkien and Book II of The Aeneid |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=30 |issue=3 |at=Article 7 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol30/iss3/7}}</ref>