Middle-Earth Tours

Tour 2: The Places of Middle-Earth

Dragons
Smaug is, of course, the best known of Tolkien's dragons, but he's far from the only - or even the most powerful - such creature in the history of Middle-earth. Ancalagon the Black, slain by Earendil the Mariner, was probably the most powerful; and Glaurung/Glorund perhaps the most malevolent. Then there were all the dragons that participated in the fall of Gondolin. So before we get to Smaug, let's take a quick look at a few of his cousins from the First Age of Middle-Earth.

Turambar and Glorund,
by John Howe
Fall of Gondolin,
by Roger Garland
The Fall of Gondolin,
by John Howe
Don't be alarmed by the trap doors in the chests of some of Garland's dragons; his painting depicts an earlier version of the fall of Gondolin in which the dragons were indeed mechanical. If you don't believe me, read some of the History of Middle-Earth books.

Smaug, by Maria Distefano

 There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light. --The Hobbit, "Inside Information"

Smaug, by David Wyatt
Smaug, by John Howe
Smaug, by Alan Lee
The dragon swooped once more lower than ever, and as he turned and dived down his belly glittered white with sparkling fires of gems in the moon -- but not in one place. The great bow twanged. The black arrows sped straight from the string, straight for the hollow in the left breast where the foreleg was flung wide. In it smote and vanished, barb, shaft, and feather, so fierce was its flight. With a shriek that deafened men, felled trees and split stone, Smaug shot spouting into the air, turned over and crashed down full from on high in ruin. --The Hobbit, "Fire and Water"

Smaug the Magnificent,
by Michael Hague
The Death of Smaug,
by John Howe
Smaug falls on Laketown,
by Alan Lee


For more on Smaug, visit the Lonely Mountain page
Full-size versions of these pictures are on display at Rolozo Tolkien.