I had the elder relative as GRAN, not GRAM, so at 41A: First N.F.L. There were a couple of minor sticking points on the journey to my final destination (the eastern WEST). ![]() But I like cake and I liked this puzzle and that's what matters, I think. Look, I'm not the best with cake metaphors, this puzzle surely deserves better. Don't ask me why there's ATIT on the cake, maybe it's a novelty cake depicting a STRIPTEASE, I don't know. And then you've got the witty decorative flourish in the icing, or the cherry on top, maybe, with that WEST clue in the far southeast ( 52D: Inapt locale for this answer). And the four-layer cake is toothpicked into place by more solid long answers: PONTIFF, ANIMATES, GNOMISH (!), INSEAMS. INITIATIVE is the weakest of the bunch, and it's not weak at all. That SE corner is one of the nicest four-layer cakes I've ever seen. Instead it's full of familiar words and phrases, many of them fresh and colloquial and surprising. The puzzle doesn't over-rely on obscure words (only PATENS comes close) or proper nouns (though there are few nice ones). Those NW and SE corners are really wonderful, and everything else is at least solid. To be a servant to someone else seems tedious and then what? Probably just end up going back to Moria and being king of the strange things down the bottom there.I liked this quite a bit. And I don't see what benefit there would be for the Balrog itself. A Balrog coming along and claiming his ring might be more of a risk than a benefit. And he likely thought it wasn't terribly necessary given his overwhelming military advantage. It did seem to me odd that Sauron never tried to recruit the Balrog to his side but maybe he was also concerned it would be a rival. I do know that Balrogs were servants of Morgoth who was also also the master of Sauron. Probably realised they weren't going to hunt it down, alert enemies to its existence and location and offer some protection if someone did happen to come after it. I don't remember there being any sense that it actually ruled the goblins in the mines, but rather that it didn't mind them being there. I imagine by then it had some sense that it was no longer in the same danger but could now enjoy being the danger. Which happened and then it was disturbed. It was probably sitting at the bottom of Moria though in a sort of hibernation just hiding from those who might have been hunting it and waiting to be forgotten. There's no suggestion that immortal beings actually even have a sense of boredom and there are many who have lived an awfully long time just hanging around. I imagine it was just chilling and enjoying being a super powerful being. Sauron’s mind was also dedicated towards a single purpose, and when Saruman fell, he fell into obsession and self-destruction as well. Obviously the creature had an extinct for survival and was intelligent in a way, but clearly it didn’t have the kind of imaginative capacity Gandalf did. It’s also possible that the longer it dwelt below the ground, the more detached from conventional modes of existence it became, if it had ever experienced such-since the War of Wrath was like a cosmic, earth-shattering war that altered the very landscape. If Morgoth has no influence, then perhaps the Balrog is like a boat without an engine, responding only to external stimuli or wandering aimlessly underground. So my guess is that the Balrog, when left alone, mainly entered a form of hibernation or meditation on its goals or purpose, or perhaps waiting for the return of its master. When the Balrog became a servant of Morgoth, he was probably locked in on his purposes and his mode of thinking. They don’t experience time the way we do, and their minds don’t work the same. ![]() Serious answer: Balrogs are immortal, transcendent beings equivalent to Gandalf (or Saruman) before he became a Wizard. If you are discussing something new, such as the recent Hobbit movies, please use spoiler tags as follows: (/spoiler)Īnd remember NOT to put spoilers in your post titles! If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world! Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli Snoos created by Tom Sexton LoTR - Wikipedia Page Spoiler Tags - USE THEM! Tolkien Related Multi-Reddit to Rule them All Recommended Sites The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Sonįor a full recommended Tolkien reading list, please CLICK HERE - written by ebneter Related Subreddits.Lord Of The Rings (Including Appendices).Don't Criticize Others For Their Opinionsĭetails of rules are HERE Tolkien Recommended Reading.For all things Tolkien, The Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit, Silmarillion, and more.
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