The "Quenta
Silmarillion" tells how, in the First Age of
Sun, Morgoth the Dark Enemy hid himself in the Pits
of Angband and wrought his masterpieces of evil from
flame and sorcery. These dark jewels of Morgoth's
genius were the Great Worms called Dragons. He made
three kinds: great serpents that slithered, those
that walked on legs, and those that flew with wings
like the Bat. Of these kinds there were two types:
the Cold-drakes, who fought with fang and claw, and
the miraculous Urulóki Fire-drakes, who destroyed
with breaths of flame.
All Dragons were the
embodiment of the chief evils of Men, Elves and
Dwarves, and so were great in the destruction of
those races. The Dragons themselves were vast armies
that worked towards Morgoth's aims. The reptiles were
of massive size and power and were protected by scale
of impenetrable iron. Tooth and nail were like
javelin and rapier, and their tails could crush the
shield wall of any army.
The winged Dragons
swept the land below them with hurricane winds, and
the Fire-drakes breathed scarlet and green flames
that licked the Earth and destroyed all in their
path.
Beyond strength of
arms, Dragons carried other more subtle powers. Their
eyesight was keener than the hawk's and anything that
they sighted could not escape them. They had hearing
that would catch the sound of the slightest breath of
the most silent enemy, and a sense of smell that
would allow them to name any creature by the least
odor of its flesh.
The intelligence of
Dragons was renowned, as was their love of setting
and solving riddles. Dragons were ancient serpents,
and so were creatures of immense cleverness and
knowledge but not of wisdom, for their intelligence
had flaws of vanity, gluttony, greed, deceit and
wrath.
Being created chiefly
of the elements of fire and sorcery, the Dragons
shunned water and preferred darkness to the light of
day. Dragon-blood was black and deadly poison, and
the vapors of their worm-stench were of burning
sulfur and slime. Their bodies glowed always with a
hard, gem-like flame. Their laughter was deeper than
well-shafts and made the very mountains quake. The
eyes of Dragons emitted rays of ruby light or in
anger flashed red lightning. Their cruel reptilian
voices were harsh whispers and, combined with the
intensity of the serpent eye, invoked the
Dragon-spell that bound unwary foes and made them
wish to surrender to the beast's awesome will.
First of the
Fire-drakes, the Urulóki created by Morgoth in
Angband, was Glaurung, Father of Dragons. After only
a century of brooding and growing in the caverns,
Glaurung in fiery wrath burst out from Angband's gate
and came into a startled World. Though he was not of
the winged race that would later arise, Glaurung was
the greatest terror of his time. He burned and
savaged the lands of the Elves in Hithlum and
Dorthonion before being driven back by Fingon, prince
of Hithlum. Morgoth, however, was displeased with
Glaurung for him impulsiveness, for he had planned
that the Dragon should grow to full power before
revealing him to an unsuspecting World. To Glaurung
this attack was but mere adolescent adventure - a
youthful testing of power. Terrible though it was to
the Elves, his strength was barely developed and his
scale-armour was still tender to the assault of
weapons. So Morgoth held Glaurung within Angband for
another two centuries before he let the Urulóki
loose. This was the beginning of the Fourth Battle in
the Wars of Beleriand. It became known as the Battle
of Sudden Flame when Glaurung the Great Worm, in full
power led Morgoth's forces into the battle against
the High Elves of Beleriand. His great size and
scorching fire cleared a path into the armies of foe,
and with Morgoth's demons, the Balrogs, and black
legions of innumerable Orcs he broke the siege of
Angband and brought despair to the Elves.
In the Fifth Battle,
called the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, Glaurung
caused even more terrible destruction, as by now he
had (in the mysterious way of Dragons) fathered a
brood of lesser Fire-drakes and Cold-drakes to follow
him in war. So great army of Elves and Men fell
before this onslaught, and none could withstand the
Dragon-flame, except the Dwarves of Belegost, who had
come to fight the common foe.
Morgoth used Glaurung
to hold the territories he gained; but force in
battle was not the only power this monster knew. He
brought many under his sway with the binding power of
his serpent eye and the hypnotic Dragon-spell.
Years after Glaurung
had sacked and laid waste to the kingdom of
Nargothrond, the "Narn i Hîn Húrin" tells
how he was slain by the mortal Túrin Turambar. For
this son of Húrin came on the Fire-drake by stealth
and drove the sword Gurthang deep into the beast's
underbelly, but, by the poison of the black blood and
the venom of the Dragon's last words, Túrin was also
killed.
Though Glaurung was
named the Father of Dragons, the greatest Dragon that
ever entered the World was one named Ancalagon the
Black. "Rushing jaws" is the meaning of his
name, and his ravening majesty devestated the army of
the West in the Great Battle and the War of Wrath at
the close of the First Ago of Sun. Ancalagon was the
first of the winged Fire-drakes, and he and others of
that king came out of Angband like mighty storm
clouds of wind and fire as a last defence of
Morgoth's realm was made. This was the first the
World had seen of winged Dragons and for a time
Morgoth's foes were in retreat. Yet Eagles and all
the warrior birds of the Earth came out of the West
with the flying ship "Vingilot" and the
warrior Eärendil. The battle of these beings of the
air lasted a long time, but at last Eärendil was
victorious, Ancalagon was cast down and the power of
Morgoth was broken forever.
So great was the
defeat of the Dragons in the Great Battle that it is
not until the third Age of Sun that the histories of
Middle-earth speak again of the Dragons. In that time
they inhabited the wastes beyond the Gray Mountains
of the North. And, it is said, their greed led them
to the hoarded wealth of the Seven Kings of the
Dwarves.
Mightiest of the
dragons of the Grey Mountains was one named Scatha
the Worm who drove the dwarves from their halls in
fear and dread, but a prince of Men stood and gave a
battle. This was the warrior Fram, son of Frumgar,
chieftain of the Éothéd, and Scatha was killed by
the hands of this Man. Yet this was but temporary
release from the terror that lurked in the mountains,
for in time many Cold-drakes returned to the Grey
Mountains. Though the dwarves' defence was valiant
and strong, they were overwhelmed; one by one their
warriors fell and the gold-rich Grey Mountains were
left entirely to the Dragons.
In the twenty-eighth
century of the Third Age, the chronologies of the
Westlands tell how the mightiest Dragon of that Age
came from the North to the great kingdom of Dwarves
in Erebor, the Lonely Mountain. This Fire-drake
called Smaug the Golden was vast and bat-winged and a
fearsome bane to Dwarves and Men. With consuming
Dragon-flame Smaug ruined the city of the Men of Dale
and broke the door and the wall of the Dwarf-kingdom
of the Lonely Mountain. The dwarves fled or were
destroyed and Smaug took the riches of that place;
gold and gemstones, mithril and silver, elf-gems and
pears, the many faceted crystals of emerald, sapphire
and diamond.
For two centuries
Smaug ruled Erebor unchallenged. Yet in the year 2941
a company of adventurers came to the mountain; twelve
dwarves led by the rightful king of Erebor, Thorin
Oakenshield, and a hobbit mercenary who was named
Bilbo Baggins. They approached the Dragon by stealth
and were amazed, for Smaug was huge beyond all that
they had imagined and glowed golden-red with serpent
rage. He was armored as all of his race with scales
of impenetrable iron, but in wariness he also
protected his soft underbelly from assault; as he lay
sprawled upon the wealth of his hoard he allowed
diamonds and hard gemstones to imbed in his belly,
and in this way armored his only weakness. Yet, by
cunning the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins discovered one point
upon the broad breast of the beast that was not
sheathed in jewels, where sharp steel might cut.
When Smaug was aroused
by the adventurers he came out in wrath and loosed
his fire on the land. In vengeance he came to
Esgaroth on the Long Lake, for the Lake Men had aided
the adventurers. yet there lived a Northman, valiant
and strong, named Bard the Bowman who, guided by the
secret of the Dragon's weakness drove a black arrow
into the beast's one vital place. Wondrously the
Dragon screamed and fell flaming from the sky. So
died Smaug the Golden, mightiest of the Dragons of
the Third Age.
It was rumored that
Dragons continued for many centuries to inhabit the
Northern Waste beyond the Grey Mountains, but no tale
that has come to Men out of Middle-earth speaks again
of these evil, yet magnificent beings.
