I pasted down the first few seed lines into a private entry at first, and then didn't revise the date when I unlocked it.

The first one bothers me because its internal development isn't terribly close to the original, and there isn't even a clear central character-- seems as if the way the parallel *ought* to work is that the Balrog is shut up in the deeps of Moria for ages and Ages and doesn't know what's happening outside (though it would be neat if it had a palantir to look at; offhand can't think of a plausible way one of them would've rolled down there, tbough), until one day this Gandalf dude shows up and yanks the Balrog's attention away from its former drab Balroggy existence toward the outside world, ultimately killing it.

OTOH, no one expects very much from Poe except mellifluous assonance and a pervasive aura of tragedy/dread; it's not as if he has to make sense.