Of Balrogs

Of all the evil creatures in MiddleEarth the most feared were the Balrogs. They were "Demons of Might" the name of the demons of fire who served Morgoth.The Quenta Silmarillion states that they were of the Maiar a form of lesser God,it is stated that"Dreadful among these spirits(Maiar) were the Valaraukar, the scourges of fire that in MiddleEarth were called Balrogs." They were cloake in darkness,and terror went before them; they had whips of flame.The greatest of the Balrogs was known as Gothmog.In the Silmarillion it tells of how Morgoth alligned himself with the great spider queen,Ungoliant,and with her aid was able to steal the Silmarils from the Lords of the West,but Ungoliant turned on Morgoth and would have done him great harm so Morgoth summoned his Balrogs to fight her and they alone were able to defeat her.In the end most of the Balrogs were destroyed when the Valar assaulted Angband(Morgoths sanctuary) defeating his armies and capturing him they laid him in irons and cast him out into the vois from whence he could not return, the few Balrogs left fled and hid themselves in caverns inaccessible at the roots of the world. In the LOrd of the Rings it speaks of Durins bane.The dwarves in their greed delved too deep in the earth and awoke  a Balrog who slew many of them and King Durin himself, it is this Balrog that Gandalf fought in Moria and finally defeated him though the Balrog also killed Gandalf, but he was given life again so that he could finish his task in MiddleEarth.