User blog comment:Maltalidenta Kwuitidherali/Of Things Being Made 'By the Valar' et cetera./@comment-26453572-20160126014854/@comment-26453572-20160126123027

Gandalf was really only scared of him in the movies (from what I've gathered), which exaggerated his powers. Also, he didn't come across Utumno itself (the lore location is too far away), he came across an old dwelling of Morgoth's Orcs in the Angmar mountains sent to attack Gundabad at his command. When the order never came, they sort of stayed there, dwindled, bred a little, ate the weak ones, and started forging weapons in preparation.