Summary
The lore and history ofThe Lord of The Ringsincludes several fantastic and mythical beasts, some of which Tolkien invented, but others that came from his own personal history of studying mythology and legend.Dragonsare one example of Tolkien’s interpretation of classic legend, with his dragons adopting typical characteristics such as breathing fire, resembling large lizards, and being generally evil.
Morgoth created the dragons found inThe Lord of the Ringsas minions to intimidate his enemies, destroy cities and castles, and act as the backup for his standing armies. Sauron inherited the dragons that appear inThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Ringstrilogy, but he was not their original master. By the time the War of the Ring took place, all the dragons were either dead, or uninterested in helping Sauron further his return.
Slain By Fram, An Ancestor Of Eorl The Young
Scathadoesn’t appear in any of the current live-action adaptations of Tolkien, nor is there anything about him in the narrative parts of the books, but he’s mentioned in the Appendices as an important part of Middle-earth’s history. Tolkien took the name from an Old English word that meant “a violent or dangerous person.” The long-worm lived in the Grey Mountains in the northern part of Middle-earth.
When Scatha started to ravage the countryside at the beginning of the Third Age, it was a human named Fram who stepped forward and put an end to him. Fram wasthe leader of the Éothéod, the people who would evolve into the Rohirrim. The treasures he recovered from Scatha’s hoard included the Horn of Rohan, which eventually became the property of Meriadoc Brandybuck.
6Smaug The Golden
Slain By The Bard Of Laketown With The Black Arrow
A fearsome fire-drake that destroyed the town of Dale and the Dwarven kingdom of Erebor in the Third Age,Smauggets more screen time than any other dragon inThe Lord of the Ringsfranchise. As far as villains go, he’s the face of the series, and appeared in the 1978 Rankin-Bass cartoon along with two of the three more recentHobbitmovies:The Desolation of SmaugandThe Battle of Five Armies.
Gandalf wasn’t just helping Thorin out of the goodness of his heart. He knew thatSauron was starting to gatherhis forces and had his eye on recruiting Smaug into his army, so at the very least, some research into whether the dragon was still occupying the mountain was in order. The Wizard didn’t anticipate Bilbo finding the One Ring along the way.
5Gostir
Dwells In The North Of Rhûn
His full name was Gorsthir, but the Nolder Elves that had to live with his marauding called himGostir, and he was one of Morgoth’s cold drakes. Although he couldn’t breathe fire,these dragons were a powerful forceon Morgoth’s side during the War Of Wrath, and most of them were killed in that epic battle.
Gostir was one of the dragons that moved to the Grey Mountains and the Withered Heath and continued to plague the Dwarven kingdoms well into the Third Age. Dain I and his son Fror were killed at the gates of their own hall in the Grey Mountains, but it’s unclear whether this was Gostir doing or his brother, Lhamthanc’s. Both of them appear in theCreatures of Middle-earthsupplement of the Middle-earth Role Playing (MERP) table-top gaming system.
Unknown, Perhaps In The North With His Brother, Gostir
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Lhamthancappears with his brother Gostir in a supplemental role-playing game, along with Christopher Tolkien’sHistory of Middle Earthcompilation. Like his brother, Lhamthanc appears to be another survivor of the War Of Wrath, who escaped North into the mountains to plague the Dwraves afterwards.
The Noldor named this dragon as well, using their words for “forked tongue” and “snake.” According to what little information is available about Lhamthanc, he had a tongue that was nine feet long, hence the name. There was no talk of either Lhamthanc or his brother Gostir 400 years later when Gandalf and Thorin’s Company traveled to Erebor, so they may have moved on, or the Dwarves may have finally killed them.
2Glaurung, The Father Of Dragons
Slain By Túrin With Gurthang
Glaurangwas one of the most notorious dragons in Tolkien’s mythology, and the main villain of many ofthe stories Tolkien wrote aboutthe First Age. Morgoth bred him in the firey, muddy pits of his fortress in Angbad specifically to provide backup for his orcish armies. After a hundred years of brooding and festering, the fire-drake Glauron was released on Middle-earth during the Siege of Angband and laid waste to the Elvish forces.
Even as a baby drake, he was lethal, and destroyed the strongholds of Hithlum and Dorthonion before Hingon, the prince of Hithlum, drove him back. Glaurang had the power to hypnotize and remove or restore enemies, and his blood was a deadly poison. He was a deciding factor in almost every major battle in Middle-earth until he was killed by Turin, a hero who was destined to come to a tragic end despite his courageous deeds.
1Ancalagon The Black
Slain By Eärendil The Mariner
A winged drake who was even greater and more terrifying than Glaurang,Ancalgon the Blackwas also bred by Morgoth to be a part of his army. He was famously part of the Dark Lord’s forces during the War of Wrath, a battle that decimated Middle-earth and saw the deaths or disappearances of many dragons.
It was when Morgoth thought he was facing defeat that he released a whole host of fire-drakes, led by Ancalgon himself. The Valar were even pushed back by their assault, and had Eärendil The Mariner and the Eagles not appeared, the forces of the Dark Lord would have destroyed all of Middle-earth. Ancalagon was so big that, when he fell from the sky, he destroyed the entire Thangorodrim,a chain of volcanic mountainsthat Morgoth had raised as part of his fortress.
