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It is arguably the most iconic scene in The Lord of the Rings. And while on its
surface it seems like a match between an old wizard and a monster of shadow and flame,
the true meaning and nature of this conflict runs deep in the lore of Tolkien’s world.
Today, on Nerd of the Rings we look at Gandalf’s confrontation with the Balrog,
the words he uses in his rebuke, and the deeper meaning within.
Now, we’ll look at Gandalf’s speech a phrase at a time,
but let’s first take a look a the text itself to remind us of the words Gandalf uses:
The Balrog reached the bridge. Gandalf stood in the middle of the span, leaning on the staff in
his left hand, but in his other hand Glamdring gleamed, cold and white. His enemy halted again,
facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings. It raised the whip,
and the thongs whined and cracked. Fire came from its nostrils. But Gandalf stood firm.
‘You cannot pass,’ he said. The orcs stood still, and a dead silence fell.
‘I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark
fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.’
First we have: I am a servant of the Secret Fire. Naturally,
the question is - what is the Secret Fire? For that answer, we must go to
the very beginning of The Silmarillion. In the Ainulindalë, we learn how the Ainur - that is
the Valar and Maiar - took part in a great song, and Eru, the God of Tolkien’s world,
gave these thoughts the Secret Fire, which burns at the heart of the world.
It is summarized in the second chapter of the Silmarillion as follows:
In the beginning Eru, the One, who in the Elvish tongue is named Ilúvatar, made the
Ainur of his thought; and they made a great Music before him. In this Music the World was begun;
for Ilúvatar made visible the song of the Ainur, and they beheld it as a light in the darkness. And
many among them became enamoured of its beauty, and of its history which they saw beginning and
unfolding as in a vision. Therefore Ilúvatar gave to their vision Being, and set it amid the Void,
and the Secret Fire was sent to burn at the heart of the World; and it was called Eä.
This Secret Fire is, quite simply, what gives true life to any creation. We find
it also goes by another name in Tolkien’s text - the Flame Imperishable. For when
Eru instructs the Ainur to devise the world in their song, he says:
And since I have kindled you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers
in adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will.
While Eru gives living things this flame imperishable, allowing them independent
thought and will, created beings cannot wield this flame - meaning only Eru himself can
give true life. We see an example of this when the vala Aulë creates the dwarves. Initially,
they are incapable of doing anything without Aulë being present and willing their actions
into being. It is only after Iluvatar gives them the Flame Imperishable that they are
capable of independent thought and action - creating the dwarves as we come to know them.
Even the most powerful of the Valar - the dark lord Morgoth, did not have this power,
which is why he had to take other creatures - like Iluvatar’s elves, to twist into his orcs.
As such, it is fitting that Gandalf refers to himself as a servant of the
Secret Fire - it is a way of saying that he serves, above all others,
the One, Eru Iluvatar, the only one who can wield the Flame Imperishable.
It’s worth noting that while most, if not all the Fellowship would have no idea what
Gandalf is referring to here, the balrog would know exactly what Gandalf is talking
about. Because like Gandalf himself, the balrog is a maia - and was present at,
and took part in, the Music of the Ainur. Both of these beings, now facing off thousands upon
thousands of years later, were present at the very creation of the world - when Eru used the
Secret Fire. And what Gandalf is pointing out here is that, while the Balrog has long ago
abandoned following the will of Eru and fell to the service of the first Dark Lord Morgoth,
Gandalf has remained true to his purpose - and still serves Eru and the Secret Fire.
In Gandalf’s second phrase he refers to himself as “wielder of the Flame of Anor.” Now there are
a couple prevailing theories regarding what the Flame of Anor might be. First we will begin with
what I personally think is the least likely - a Ring of Power. While it isn’t revealed in the
book until Frodo’s arrival at the Grey Havens, Gandalf, for all his time in Middle-earth,
possesses Narya, one of the three elven rings of power. In The Silmarillion,
we learn that Cirdan the Shipwright gives Gandalf the ring when he first arrives in Middle-earth:
‘Take now this Ring,’ he said; ‘for thy labours and thy cares will be heavy,
but in all it will support thee and defend thee from weariness. For this is the Ring of Fire,
and herewith, maybe, thou shalt rekindle hearts to the valour of old in a world that grows chill.
This has led many to believe that Gandalf is making a direct reference to the fact that he
wields Narya, the ring of fire. Indeed, many of Gandalf’s acts involve using fire - just
a bit earlier in the story, we saw Gandalf set fire to one of Legolas’ arrows mid-flight during
the Warg attack - so Gandalf's abilities, and his ring seem a pretty natural fit.
However, it’s worth noting that the elven ringbearers are generally very secretive
about the fact that they possess them. It is only late in Frodo’s conversation
with Galadriel that he is able to perceive that she likewise possesses a ring of power.
But perhaps the biggest bit of evidence that the Flame of Anor is NOT referring to his
ring comes down to real-world timing. It turns out Tolkien had written this
passage of Gandalf’s standoff with the balrog before he decided to give
Gandalf a ring of power. In The History of Middle-earth Part 7: The Treason of Isengard,
Christopher Tolkien notes that in the earlier version of the tale, Elrond had confirmed that
the three rings were taken over the Sea and are no longer in Middle-earth. Also in earlier drafts,
we see Tolkien contrast Gandalf’s fire with the flame of the balrog…
‘You cannot pass,’ he said. ‘Go back. I am the master of the White Fire. The red
flame cannot come this way.’ The creature made no reply, but standing up tall so
that it loomed above the wizard it strode forward and smote him. A sheet of white
flame sprang before him [?like a shield], and the Balrog fell backward, its sword shivered
Here, it is apparent that Gandalf is speaking of a power that we immediately afterward see in use,
as his white fire blocks the balrog with a shield-like flame.
Now, we’ll get to what Gandalf calls the balrog in contrast to himself in just a bit, but the
final clue to the meaning of Flame of Anor is the word Anor itself. Anor is a Sindarin word meaning
“Sun”. This likely means that the light Gandalf wields is like that
of the Sun. The Sun itself deriving from an untarnished fruit of one of the Two Trees.
And there is good reason that this would be relevant to the balrog, for we read in
the Silmarillion that Morgoth passed his feelings about the sun on to his servants…
“But Morgoth hated the new lights, and was for a while confounded by
this unlooked-for stroke of the Valar. And Arien (that is the maia who guides
the sun) Morgoth feared with a great fear, but dared not come nigh her...
With shadows he hid himself and his servants from Arien, the glance of whose eyes they could not
long endure; and the lands near his dwelling were shrouded in fumes and great clouds.”
And it is this good and pure light, a hatred of which Morgoth passes to his servants,
that would contrast so well with the balrog himself…
Before telling the balrog to go back to the shadow, Gandalf informs the demon “The dark
fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun”. First, we’ll briefly touch on the dark fire. We’ve had
a lot of talk of flame and fire and how they relate to Gandalf, but let’s not forget the
balrog itself is a demon of not just shadow, but also flame. Here we see Gandalf giving us
a contrast between his own fire - the flame of Anor, and that of the balrog - the dark fire,
what we can think of as the evil fire. Here is telling the balrog that his dark flame will not
help him, because Gandalf himself is a servant of the secret fire and wielder of the flame of Anor.
Then he calls the balrog by a name - Flame of Udun. And full disclosure,
when I first came to Lord of the Rings through the Peter Jackson films, I totally thought this
was some kind of incantation Gandalf was yelling in preparation for the balrog’s strike. However,
we find that he is referring to the balrog directly as Flame of Udun.
To find the meaning of Udun, we turn to the earliest days of the world - as we have with
so much of this clash between these ancient beings. We learn that Udun is a less commonly
used Sindarin name of Utumno, Morgoth’s first fortress in the newly created world.
The lands of the far north were all made desolate in those days;
for there Utumno was delved exceeding deep,
and its pits were filled with fires and with great hosts of the servants of Melkor.
This fortress would have been where the balrogs - and indeed this balrog himself - would have
come under the service of Morgoth - where this once great angelic being like Gandalf himself
became twisted into a demon of shadow and flame. We look at the term flame of
Udun, knowing it not only as the location from whence the balrog came,
but also it’s meaning - for Utumno, and Udun, are translated into “dark pit, underworld” or “hell.”
Finally, Gandalf says for the third time “You Cannot Pass”. On its surface,
this is quite straightforward - Gandalf will not allow the balrog to pass out of Moria.
It’s quite understandable considering the destruction such a creature could
bring - not to mention the terror it would inflict should it ally with Sauron.
However, in that earlier version of the text that Christopher Tolkien gives us in the History of
Middle-earth, we see a line that Christopher says was probably immediately struck out.
It is forbidden for any Balrog to come beneath
the sky since Fionwë son of Manwë overthrew Thangorodrim.
Now, this is obviously a very early version of Tolkien’s legendarium and not what is in
the final text by any means. We see that rather than Eonwe, the herald of Manwe,
this character is still conceptualized as Fionwe, son of Manwe. And that it was he
who overthrew Thangorodrim. But it is interesting to me that, even if for only a fleeting moment,
Tolkien considered the option that the balrog could not leave Moria, for it was forbidden.
Which begs the question that, if this had been the version Tolkien had gone with,
what would have happened if the balrog indeed stepped out into the sunlight?
Now that we know about the Secret Fire, the Flame of Anor, and the Flame of
Udun, let’s take another look at the great confrontation on the Bridge of Khazad-dum…
‘You cannot pass,’ he said. The orcs stood still, and a dead silence fell. ‘I am a servant of the
Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you,
flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.’ The Balrog made no answer. The fire in it
seemed to die, but the darkness grew. It stepped forward slowly on to the bridge,
and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall;
but still Gandalf could be seen, glimmering in the gloom; he seemed small, and altogether alone:
grey and bent, like a wizened tree before the onset of a storm. From out of the shadow a red
sword leaped flaming. Glamdring glittered white in answer. There was a ringing clash and a stab
of white fire. The Balrog fell back, and its sword flew up in molten fragments. The wizard
swayed on the bridge, stepped back a pace, and then again stood still. ‘You cannot pass!’
he said. With a bound the Balrog leaped full upon the bridge. Its whip whirled and hissed.
At that moment Gandalf lifted his staff, and crying aloud he smote the bridge before him.
The staff broke asunder and fell from his hand. A blinding sheet of white
flame sprang up. The bridge cracked. Right at the Balrog’s feet it broke,
and the stone upon which it stood crashed into the gulf, while the rest remained, poised,
quivering like a tongue of rock thrust out into emptiness. With a terrible cry the Balrog fell
forward, and its shadow plunged down and vanished. But even as it fell it swung its whip, and the
thongs lashed and curled about the wizard’s knees, dragging him to the brink. He staggered and fell,
grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. ‘Fly, you fools!’ he cried, and was gone.
Gandalf’s confrontation with the balrog is one of incredible depth and deeper
meaning in the history of Middle-earth. And I have to say, it’s one of the many
things that make me so grateful for the work of Christopher Tolkien. Without him,
we wouldn’t have a clue of the incredible deeper meaning of this dramatic event. It
is truly a clash of epic proportions, with great immortal beings who have been on opposite sides,
wielding their respective flames of light and darkness, since the earliest days of the world.
It never fails - anytime I talk, read, or think about Middle-earth, I’m left wanting more. And
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host a Learn to Play stream here on Nerd of the Rings. Check out the link in the
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