Long before the events of The Hobbit, it is said that Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, bred dragons during the First Age to serve him in wars. The first dragon to be seen in Middle-earth was Glaurung, the father of dragons. Many dragons were killed during the War of Wrath in the First Age, and those who survived eventually went to the far north, where they gradually increased in number. In the Second and Third Age, dragons began to invade lands in their hunt for gold, including Smaug the Golden.
As the greatest fire-breathing dragon of the Third Age, Smaug is savage and formidable, and it is because of his inherent violence that Gandalf is concerned at one point that he could become a potential ally of the Dark Lord Sauron. Even when he dies, no one has the courage to retrieve the vast number of gemstones that lie with his body — demonstrating his terrifying legacy.
How Is Smaug Described in the Books?
Not much is known about Smaug’s origins until he first appears in Middle-earth’s history in 2770 of the Third Age, when he attacks the Lonely Mountain and the town of Dale after hearing about the wealth of the Dwarves of Erebor. He forces the Dwarves into exile and claims the treasure for himself, including the famous Arkenstone. He is shown to be “a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm”, with the sole purpose of guarding his hoard of gold. When Bilbo Baggins steals a single cup from him when he sneaks into the dragon’s lair, Smaug immediately registers that it is missing. He is also cruel and cunning, boasting of his invulnerability when he encounters Bilbo. He also has the tendency to manipulate others; for instance, he attempted to make Bilbo doubt Thorin Oakenshield’s intentions towards him.
J. R. R. Tolkien describes Smaug as a red-golden dragon with bat-like wings, sharp teeth and claws, and a huge tail. His flames are scarlet and green, and he seems to give off a reddish glow in the darkness. Although he is the largest creature to exist in the Third Age, his ancestors are believed to have been much more enormous — such as Ancalagon the Black, the largest as well as the most powerful dragon of Middle-earth.
His scales are deemed hard enough to be impenetrable to most weapons, but these only cover his upper hide. To protect his soft underbelly, he lies down on his pile of treasure for almost two centuries that the gems embed themselves in his body. In T.A. 2941, when a band of dwarves attempt to take back their kingdom, Bilbo is the first one to come across Smaug. Unknown to the dragon, the Hobbit notices a bare patch in his “diamond waistcoat”. When Smaug realizes that the Lake-men must have helped the intruders, he leaves the Lonely Mountain to destroy Lake-town. This is when Bard the Bowman shoots the Black Arrow directly into the exposed spot in his armor.
How Does Smaug’s Appearance Differ in the Movies?
Only glimpses of Smaug can be seen in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, but his appearance is notably changed in its sequels: his four legs are replaced with two legs and winged arms since he is described in the book as a “wyrm”. However, Joe Letteri, the visual effects artist for The Hobbit series, uses influences from dragons of different cultures to design Smaug’s look; he blends different features of the classic European dragon with those of the legendary Asian dragon.
Voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, Smaug has a long, serpentine neck; a crocodile-like face; spikes lining his back; a long tail; and dull-golden scales on his underside and red scales everywhere else. In the movies, he also appears to be much older with scars, dead skin and discolored scales, to show the impact of his past battles. He is also portrayed to be much larger: he is about 130 m in length, with a height of 18.3 m.
The biggest deviation from the book’s version is that Smaug’s underside is heavily armored in the film trilogy, instead of being coated with gold and jewels. His bare patch is actually a missing scale, which broke during his destruction of Dale when Girion, Lord of Dale, attempts to slay him.
What Kind of Dragon Is Smaug?
In Tolkien’s elaborate world of Middle-earth, many types of dragons have lived throughout the ages, all of which are differentiated by their movement and whether they breathe fire. These include the winged dragons (those with four legs and wings); wingless dragons (those who crawl on their legs); serpent-like dragons (those without any legs and wings); cold-drakes (dragons who could not breathe fire); and fire-drakes (winged or wingless fire-breathing dragons). Smaug is a fire-drake with wings that allow him to fly.
Is Smaug the Last Dragon in Middle Earth?
It is widely assumed that, after Smaug is killed, dragons became more or less extinct. According to Gandalf, fire-drakes lived on till just before the War of the Ring, and only some subspecies may have survived after that. It is also possible that some kinds of dragons also existed in the Fourth Age. Tolkien confirmed in a letter that Smaug is the last great dragon of Middle-earth, and that “there are still dragons, if not of full primeval stature” — implying that no dragon poses any threat like him again.