Gandalf winter, they crossed "under" the mountains through the Mines of Moria, though only Gimli the Dwarf was enthusiastic about that route. In Moria, they discovered that the Dwarf colony established there earlier had been overrun by orcs. The Fellowship fought with the orcs and trolls of Moria and escaped them. At the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, they encountered "Durin's Bane", a fearsome Balrog from ancient times. Gandalf faced the Balrog to enable the others to escape. After a brief exchange of blows, Gandalf broke the bridge beneath the Balrog with his staff. As the Balrog fell, it wrapped its whip around
The Lord of the Rings reader surveys. In the 2003 "Big Read" survey conducted in Britain by the BBC, "The Lord of the Rings" was found to be the "Nation's best-loved book". In similar 2004 polls both Germany and Australia also found "The Lord of the Rings" to be their favourite book. In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, "The Lord of the Rings" was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium". "The Lord of the Rings" was awarded the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award in 2009. Although "The Lord of the Rings" was published in the 1950s, Tolkien insisted that the One