Tolkien certainly makes it sound as if the mountain has some kind of personality. It’s hard to tell. The characters argue about it:
Boromir blames the bad weather in the Redhorn Pass on
Sauron;
Gandalf agrees with Boromir. Later Boromir changes his mind:
Let those call it the wind who will; there are fell voices on the air; and these stones are aimed at us.
to which
Aragorn replies,
I do call it the wind. But that does not make what you say untrue. There are many
evil and unfriendly things in the world that have little love for those that go on two legs, and yet are not in league with Sauron, but have purposes of their own.
Gimli argues repeatedly and vociferously that Caradhras “the Cruel” has “ill will”, hates
Dwarves and
Men and
Elves, and acts on its own to impede their passage.
My sense is that Sauron caused the bad weather in the Pass: Boromir mentioned that this was the tradition among
the wise and learned in
Gondor regarding the
Mountains of Shadow, and Gandalf immediately concurred. I think Gandalf’s hunch should be taken seriously. As for the “fell voices on the air” that Boromir noted, I suspect they could be associated with Sauron, too: he was a master of evil illusions. (Cf. the faces in
the Dead Marshes.) As for the “rock aimed” at the Company of
the Ring, I am uncertain whether Aragorn was speaking his mind or trying to raise their
spirits.
But Caradhras…
I am inclined to believe Gimli’s repeated recitation of Dwarven tradition that “Caradhras the Cruel” posed an unusual hazard above ground and possibly below was well-founded. For one thing, he is extremely certain of it and mentions it at every opportunity, despite the fact that
Durin’s Folk had been forced to abandon
Khazad-dûm over 1000 years before. 1000 years was only four complete Dwarven lifespans, but between eight and twelve generations. That makes it similar to our remembering oral and written tradition from 200–300 years ago, and of course we do, though not always with complete fidelity, assuming that the facts were ever accurately ascertained in the first place.
If Caradhras was indeed “the Cruel”, then why and how so? It was a mountain, and mountains lack intelligence of their own. In Tolkien’s world, however,
places and
objects are imprinted by sentient beings around them: Gandalf said Hollin remained wholesome 4600 years after the
Noldor of Eregion was slaughtered or driven out. The Mountains of Shadow and
Mirkwood were filled with Sauron’s darkness. Old Man Willow exercised control over the
trees of
the Old Forest. The
Barrow-wights apparently influenced the weather in the Barrow-downs, even though
Bombadil said he could not.
Durin’s Bane was underneath Caradhras for tens of centuries. I don’t think it was trapped there: I think it was hiding. Sauron undoubtedly discovered there was a
Balrog in
Moria: his
Orcs went back and forth between
Dol Guldur and Moria. (Dol Guldur was the source of Moria’s Orcs, in fact; the Balrog not only tolerated them, it dominated and terrified them in the ruined
city.)
Celeborn was concerned a Balrog might assault
Lórien, suggesting that was precisely what Sauron and the Balrog planned. (Imagine
Smaug and the Balrog assaulting Lórien together, probably the original plan.)
The Balrog’s actions are consistent with someone
hiding. It hid from the Host of
Valinor after the
War of Wrath. Maybe it “went to sleep”, maybe it didn’t; but I don’t think it was trapped. When the Dwarves broke into its hiding place, it slaughtered them and drove them out. I don’t know what information Sauron might have passed along later, but at the time, it probably had no idea Sauron was still around, and less that the
Valar had sent other
Maiar to
Middle-earth as emissaries as
Istari. Driving out the Dwarves – and any interlopers other than the useful Orcs – kept its true nature hidden: For all Durin’s Bane knew, if anyone discovered there was
a Balrog on the loose,
Eönwë might still come looking for it, and that was why it was hiding in the first place.
So my inclination is to think that Caradhras’ reputation for cruelty is due to some sort of
goetia (evil magic) or necromancy (more evil magic, the specialty of Sauron) of the Balrog’s. Think of it in terms of booby traps or minefields laid out to keep people away. If you don’t understand the nature of the trap, it seems like magic, and in Tolkien’s world,
it is.
Now that doesn’t mean Durin’s Bane went around setting individual traps, though perhaps it did, especially deep under the mountain. (In which case Dwarves looking for
mithril were finding mines of various
definitions; Gimli’s stories might indicate that’s so.) But given the nature of magic in Tolkien’s world, it might be that the Balrog was able to render the mountain generally “unfriendly”, and specifically dangerous in certain situations: someone too close to his hiding places, or to his entrances and exits, or travelling along a path he used, and so forth. For the ancient Dwarves, that must have made the place particularly hazardous even before they found the thing. All of that, in my opinion, points to the Balrog.
But as for the foul weather, I think that was Sauron. Boromir thought so; Gandalf agreed;
Elrond mentioned that the Shadow (Sauron’s influence) had crept to the
Misty Mountains, making it hard for him to determine what was going on; and
Galadriel indicated that communication with
Rivendell had recently become more difficult. All of those things point to Sauron.
