Quenta Silmarillion; Of The Voyage Of
Earendil & The
War Of Wrath: 'The
Balrogs were destroyed, save for some few that fled and hid themselves in caverns inacessable at the roots of the earth.'
It should be noted that 'some few' is a really poor choice of words, most likely added by Guy Kay and/or Christopher
Tolkien for the published Silmarillion.
Actually this is one of the quotes that concerns
Balrog numbers (in some way) that Christopher Tolkien left alone. Although you added the word 'for' it seems (as the actual sentence reads:
'... were destroyed, save some few...'), and Christopher Tolkien did not end the sentence after the word
earth, as his father had.
In any case this passage was written before
The Lord of the Rings, when seemingly thousands of Balrogs existed, and were created by
Morgoth -- a concept which persisted at least into the early 1950s, after
The Lord of the Rings was 'finished' (as far as being written).
HoME states that JRRT Tolkien had determined that the likely total of Balrogs left when Morgoth returned from exile with
the Silmarils was 'three or seven'.....
While I agree that it seems likely enough that Tolkien drastically reduced the number of Balrogs in the later 1950s, the scenario is more complex than a brief reference might allow -- not that you said otherwise -- and I realize one doesn't have to delve into many or all of the external details in every post, or would want to! The idea of very many Balrogs appears to have started before 1920 even, and so was probably the idea in Tolkien's head for decades before he ever wrote the now famed marginal note.
With respect to the notion of 3 or 7 Balrogs, we have an alteration of a passage in
The Annals of Aman (which alteration does not divulge the number of Balrogs in any case, but merely erases the impression of very many Balrogs), and but one marginal note to the same text, Tolkien's:
'There should not be supposed more than say 3 or at most 7 ever existed.'
OK, and given that this hails from the later 1950s (at least) it is arguably Tolkien's last idea concerning Balrog numbers. But Tolkien did not, in any case, revise all existing passages that still referred to very many Balrogs. Christopher Tolkien did, for the 1977 Silmarillion. In the following examples, the first version is the way JRRT left things, and the second shows how Christopher Tolkien revised the implication of very many Balrogs, leaving the matter vague in
the Silmarillion.
'Wherefore each embassy came with greater force than was agreed, but Morgoth sent the greater, and they were Balrogs. Maidros was ambushed...' Of The Siege of
Angband (Quenta Silmarillion)
[] '... but Morgoth sent the more, and there were Balrogs.' Of The Return of the
Noldor (The Silmarillion)
'Sauron came against Orodreth, the warden of the tower, with a host of Balrogs.' Of the Ruin of
Beleriand And the Fall of
Fingolfin (Quenta Silmarillion)
[] '... named Gorthaur, came against Orodreth, the warden of the tower upon Tol Sirion.' Of The Ruin Of Beleriand (The Silmarillion)
'There came wolves and serpents, and there came Balrogs one thousand,...' Of the Fourth Battle: Nírnaith Arnediad (Quenta Silmarillion)
[] 'There came wolves and wolfriders, and there came Balrogs, and dragons...' Of The Fifth Battle (The Silmarillion)
The first description I quoted above (from the QS tradition) survived into the Later Quenta Silmarillion despite a number of other post-Lord of the Rings revisions to this chapter. The second example (Orodreth and etc) also was not revised -- with Tolkien even altering §143 of the chapter, but not the 'host' of Balrogs passage.
The third example 'survived' too, but noting CJRT's description under
The Last Chapters Of The Quenta Silmarillion, it looks like JRRT never really got around to truly revising this chapter in any case (
The Grey Annals contains
'Balrogs a thousand' §230). This is also possibly why 'save some few' still existed, as the end of the tale was never really fully updated, outside of a number of cursory corrections.
So I realize that one could simply say, well Tolkien just missed these references, or never got around to them, and given the marginal note to
Annals of Aman he arguably would have altered each reference as he had done in the Annals of Aman. That's not unreasonable, but I think I have at least shown the scenario to be a little more complicated than a brief reference might allow; and I would add that we don't know if Tolkien was truly going to commit to a specific number
in the actual narrative itself.
Therefore, it must be seven. Why? Gothmog & Ecthelien killed each other; minus one....
Glorfindel and another Balrog; minus two....
If there is only three, with
Durin's Bane, that leaves zero, and the above quote says 'the Blarogs were ALL destroyed, save SOME FEW.."
While this sort of reasoning makes enough sense, it's also a mixing of texts and conceptions which are possibly 20 years apart, as far as the text goes: in other words, the idea here is that it can't be 'three' when one compares a later concept (with a drastically reduced number of Balrogs) -- with a statement that Tolkien wrote when he imagined a host of Balrogs.
From Tolkien's perspective however, three, seven, or 'many' Balrogs even, was still open to him. Of course from this angle one could say
very many things were still 'open' to Tolkien! simply because the legends of the Elder Days were still a work in progress.