Balrogs and Dragons: which is better?

J.R.R. Tolkien Forum

which do you think is better, a Balrog or dragon, and why?
I think its a tie. Balrogs are the ultimate 1 on 1 warriors, and only the strongest opponents can face them without their knees knocking. even then, if you do manage to kill one, it more often than not takes you with it.
Dragons are the ultimate tank. Able to lay waste whole armies singlehandedly, or burn towns and cities to the ground, they are cunning beyond measure, and maliciously cruel.
thats my opinion, now whats yours?

While I do love my Squishy, yes I do! http://pages.prodigy.net/rogerlori1/emoticons/smile1.gif I would have to say dragons. Dragons are so big and powerful. From an artistic stand point, I would have to pick dragons also. There is a beauty in the lines of a dragon. Besides, dragons talk more than balrogs. I voted for both. Each has his great fighting abilites, so I chose the both option.

I have to say that I think that Dragons are allitle bit better than Balrogs, but then I have always had a certain love of Dragons.

As much as I love Balrogs...or Squishy I just had to vote for dragons, I've always loved them and whenever I started getting into Tolkiens books I was thrilled when he I realized he had dragons in his books. But don't worry I still love Squishy

Squishy hater


just kidding misty
I probably would've voted for Dragons, but after seeing the Balrog in the movie... man..that thing is awsome...

Your right Squishy was awesome

I voted for Dragons. I was going to vote for balrogs because I love Squishy, but I thought Sherry had a good point about the artistic beauty of dragons. I can't wait to see Smaug onscreen.

Dragons all the way... nothing beats them... (except Bilbo )

hey Mike!
dragons do have a certain appeal to them don't they.
Technically speaking, every dragon tolkien names ends up dead, Glaurung dies at the hands of Turin, Smaug dies to a well placed arrow from Bard the Bowman, Ancalagon is killed by Earendil, and Scatha was killed by Fram.
and right now, i bet your sitting back in your chair going "wow, obssessed doesn't even begin to describe this guy"

actually, I thought of them all dying shortly after I posted... but that doesn't change my mind. although I was temporarily mistaken in suggesting that Bilbo had killed Smaug - all is well with me now, thanks to your [insert beyond-obsession word here].

I say Dragons. They're much smarter. And not all evil! Very beautiful to draw too. There are many wayz to draw a dragon.

Twisted_Wizard said this:

I say Dragons. They're much smarter. And not all evil! Very beautiful to draw too. There are many wayz to draw a dragon.

In mythologies of our Earth Dragon's are not all evil, the chinese dragon for one, but in Tolkiens trillogies all dragon's are evil/

Well, this is about dragons in particular. Or is it about Tolkien's dragons? Because, of course we are in the forum "J.R.R. Tolkien".

in LOTR, you don't encounter any dragons in the flesh (except the dragons that the "Black Riders" ride, and I pity them.) . In the Hobbit though, where it's more of a children's tale, dragons are made as one of the evil forces — maybe that's why?

I take it then, Twisted Wizard, that you have not read the Silmarillion so let me give you a quick run through.

Morgoth, originally named Melkor, lived in Thangorodrim and made many evil creatures, Balrogs, Orcs, Trolls, Kracken etc. He also curupted Maiar spirits like Sauron, in fact if memory serves the Balrogs were Maiar spirits in the begining. Anyway Sauron created Dragons in the pits of Thangorodrim, the first of which being Glaurung who has one of the largest parts in the mythologies of Middle-Earth. He created them to be monsters who's sole perpose was to destroy but he gave them intelligence and free will to an extent, they still served him obvously. And so Dragons became one of the most feared creatures in middle-earth. each dragon is evil as is each Balrog, orc, kracken but not troll is you have read tale from the perilous realm, in which a good troll is described in a poem in "The Adventured of Tom Bombadil". Anyway each Dragon is evil and strives to destroy the world of the free peoples nut they also search for wealthy places so that they can make their beds in the gold and jewels for some obscure reason like they find it comfortable. Their seach for wealth is why they captued Ered Mithrin (the Grey Mountains) and why Smaug came to Erebor.

Sorry, slip of the finger, I meant to write Morgoth but I wasn't thinking so I wrote Sauron. My bad

heh yeah, i've done that before. my mind gets ahead of my hand!

It goes to show you that you have to pay attention or you could write the wrong thing, I did in my GCSE's for english.