Did Aragorn suspect a Balrog was in Moria?

[BalrogRingDestroyer]

Aragorn said he'd been in Moria once but that the memory was very evil. However, what he said when Gandalf stubborn insisted on going as the only way that could them to finish the quest in time, was that he feared that Gandalf would be most in peril if he went through Moria. While we know that Gandalf ultimately did fall with the Balrog in Moria, Aragorn said this even before they came before the gate to Moria, let along the bridge near the other side of the Mountains.

If you think about it logically, a wizard, indeed a Maia (not sure if Aragorn knew Gandalf was one, but if any of the company did, it was most likely to be him) would be the least likely to fall to Orcs, Wargs, or even a chance Troll in Moria. Maybe a Warg army (especially with Orcs present) might give him trouble, as it did in the Hobbit when they were stuck in the trees but the Wargs didn't the others even stated in Journey in the Dark that they didn't think that Gandalf would fall to the Wargs. The Watcher actually proved more of a problem than the wolves.

And speaking of the Watcher, were there other things like that, perhaps predating Sauron, or at least his arrival to the area, lurking about in Moria near where any of them would go? Gandalf said that there were things even more terrible than the Balrog way way way down at the very bottom, but the odds of even "Durin's Bane" being near the top level at the same time as them and not somewhere way down seemed remote.

 

[Olorgando]

The Balrog appeared (was wakened) in Moria in 1980 Third Age, as per Appendix B. Which also states for 1981 TA "Many of the Silvan Elves of Lórien flee south." So the Elves of Lórien certainly knew there was something terrible in Moria. Gandalf had been in Middle-earth almost a millennium by then. Lórien and Rivendell were certainly at least in sporadic communication with each other, probably more, as Elrond's wife Celebrían was Galadriel's daughter. Gandalf had very likely been to both Rivendell and Lórien again and again before the Fellowship entered Moria (and he certainly also had dealings with Dwarves). Gandalf and Aragorn met in 2956, when Aragorn was 25, and they became friends - 62 years before they both entered Moria with the Fellowship - and each had already been inside once. I'm quite certain both had heard of "Durin's Bane"; but that anybody knew specifically that this was a Balrog seems unlikely.

In chapter V "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm" in Book Two in "Fellowship":
"'Ai! ai!' wailed Legolas. 'A Balrog! A Balrog is come!' {why he as an Elf of Thranduil's realm far in the north would be able to recognize it remains puzzling.}
'A Balrog,' muttered Gandalf. 'Now I understand.'"
Which can only mean that he had not previously understood that "Durin's Bane" was a Balrog. And if he didn't ...

So I tend to answer your question with no. If Gandalf was surprised by "Durin's Bane" being a Balrog, then it's far more unlikely that Aragorn could have suspected anything of the sort.

 

[BalrogRingDestroyer]

I'm just curious as to why he feared most that Gandalf would perish if they came into Moria, when he seemed the most powerful of the group of them.

 

[Deimos]

I'm just curious as to why he feared most that Gandalf would perish if they came into Moria, when he seemed the most powerful of the group of them.

Sixth sense; that is, a premonition, resulting in part from intuition.
Gimli voiced a premonition in ROTK that turned out to be correct.
Premonitions are not rare.
Even people in our world have them, because all humans possess an intuitive faculty.
It's just that a lot of people don't pay it any attention.

 

[Olorgando]

Even people in our world have them, because all humans possess an intuitive faculty.
It's just that a lot of people don't pay it any attention.

I'll agree with people having an intuitive faculty, and that many may ignore it for various reasons.
One thing many people may not know about intuition is that it needs a certain amount of experience - and probably some talent, however arrived by.

But there is another aspect to "people not paying attention": selective perception, and selective memory. When something meets people's expectations, it reinforces the expectations - and is remembered. When not, it's shrugged away - and forgotten. What I once read about was the feeling people have that someone is watching them behind their back (where they can't see the watcher without turning around). So they turn around - and presto, someone is watching them (though they can also be mistaken about this: actually that someone was watching someone near them). People remember this, but forget the five, ten, whatever times they turned around when they had that feeling - but no one was watching them. Now there are special cases when people have reasons to suspect watchers-behind-the-back - people being victimized by stalkers, or criminals being subjected to a stake-out. Though if the latter "get wind" of the watcher, those may be being careless - or they're trying to put pressure on their target - whatever.

As we're heading towards a new year, I expect the "usual suspects" - yellow press and the esoteria "professionals" - are spouting their "prophesies" again (this is a guess - I don't waste my time with this stuff). Sooooo - whom are we going to be hearing from during 2023? the 25 whose "prophesies" proved true. Whom are we not going to be hearing from? the 25,000 whose prophecies bombed (I'm not claiming the exact numbers to be 25 and 25K - it's just my guess of the fail rate).

Back to Middle-earth. JRRT quite frequently used the pretence that he was not inventing stories, but translating ancient historical documents. Point is, even the "originals" of these documents were compiled (as per the pretence) by scribes writing some time after the events took place. Just (re-)read the last section of the prologue to LoTR titled "Notes on the Shire Records". The "original" is the Red Book of Westmarch, originally written by Bilbo, Frodo and Sam, given by Sam to his oldest child Elanor the Fair at Undertowers in the Westmarch when Sam left M-e (as is assumed by his family) in the year 1482 SR, after the death of his wife Rose. Peregrin, by then Thain, had a copy made at the request of King Elessar, which he brought to Minas Tirith when he and Merry went there in 1484 SR (Fourth Age 64). Then there is a copy of the Thain's book, written in Gondor, completed in 1592 SR (4A 172) "at the request of the great-grandson of Peregrin" (And 51 years after Aragorn's passing), And further copies, one of which JRRT found in a dusty corner of the Bodleian Library ...

Same thing here. Prophesies that turned out to be true were of course remembered and recorded by the scribes. The vast rest had been in the memory dustbin for a long time before any scribe set pen to paper ...

 

[Deimos]

@Olorgando: do you think that some people (a small minority) actually are telepathic and/or clairvoyant?

(I will tie this back into the thread, ...Dorothy will having nothing to wonder about ... .😁)
Oh, and I totally agree with you: "One thing many people may not know about intuition is that it needs a certain amount of experience - and probably some talent, however arrived by."