Did the Balrog know about the One Ring?

[Hammersmith]

A balrog would not challenge Sauron, since he was the personal favourite of Morgoth, but with the one ring in his hand, I don't think he would doubt one second.

Assuming that a Balrog could use the ring (and I don't see any reason to suggest otherwise apart from big fingers and no opposable thumbs) I am sure that he (She? Now there's a thought!) would depose Sauron. He'd be powerful enough to, and...well, what's stopping him? Saruman was an ally of Sauron (albeit in order to access the ring) and he did not offer his master blind obedience. I believe that only the Nazgul, enslaved utterly to Sauron's will, would have taken the ring meekly to Sauron, knowing full well what it was.

 

[Forgotten Path]

Are the Nazgul slaves to the Ring or Sauron? If the Balrog had the Ring, and used it, would the Nazgul not follow his will? I guess it's hard to say, especially since there is such a fine line between Sauron and the Ring, anyway. In Letters , Tolkien says that if Frodo had the chance to ecounter the Nazgul at Orodruin, after he had claimed the Ring as his own, the Nazgul would not be able to take the Ring from him, but would have beckoned him come forth to see his new domain and then tricked him into going to Barud-dur, where Sauron, the true Master of the Ring, would have taken it. Maybe the same would have happened with the Balrog, if it had aquired the Ring. But, possibly, almost being Sauron's equal, and having the Ring, the Balrog would have triumphed. But Sauron would live on in the Ring.

But I don't think the Balrog even knew the Ring was within his reach. He just got peeed off at Gandalf for waking him up. Alas for the Balrog. He could have got Gandalf and conquered ME if he had know about the Ring. But he just got his butt kicked.