10 Most Evil Characters In The Lord Of The Rings

The Balrog is one of the oldest and most evil servants of darkness. Their origin extends back before even the first age of Middle-earth; they were created by the original Dark Lord Melkor as huge demons of fire. Originally, there were many of them, but after the overthrow of Melkor, during the War of Wrath, most were destroyed.

The one who appears in the Fellowship had survived the destruction and hid in the deepest depths of the Misty Mountains for thousands of years, before it was eventually awakened by the dwarves. This particular beast became known as Durin's Bane, after it drove the dwarves from Moria. At this time it wasn't known to be a servant of Melkor and was simply known as the "Nameless Terror" by the elves who felt its presence. When the Fellowship entered Moria, Gandalf finally realised what Durin's Bane was, and was forced to summon all his power to defeat it.

When Peter Jackson came to putting this terrifying creature to the big screen, he luckily had the technology to do it justice. Just check out the version from the 1978 animated movie - "underwhelming" doesn't do it justice.