The Great Worms
This essay examines the characteristics, activities and survival of dragons in Middle Earth. Dragons were also called Urulóki ('fire serpents'), great worms, and fire-drakes. They were created by the Darklord Melkor, in the First Age. The first such creature was Glaurung, referred to as the 'father of dragons' (QS C18, p.181). He grew to be great in malice and power and committed much depredation and destruction against the lands and armies of the Darklord's foes. Though we cannot assume that all dragons shared the same characteristics as their monstrous forefather, the best survivng details pertain to Glaurung.
Characteristics
Nearly a century after he was breed by Morgoth, Glaurung '...was yet young and scare half-grown, for long and slow is the life of the dragons...' (QS C13, p.138). Physically they were large creatures, with tough armoured scales for protection. Despite their bulk, they could move fast over ground:
'Glaurung therefore passed Mablung by, a vast shape in the mist; and he went swiftly. For he was a mighty Worm, and yet lithe.'
(Unf 1 II, p.117)
They were not hampered by daylight (unlike the Nazgul or Orcs, for example) and possessed remarkable vision, to judge by this description of Glaurung:
'...the glance of his fell eyes was keener than that of eagles, and outreached the far sight of Elves...'
(Unf 1 II, p.117)
Apart from the strength of their bodies, dragons had the deadly ability to breathe fire. This power was used to great affect in battle, where only those wearing Dwarven armour could hope to stand firm against their flame. However, such power was not inexhaustible, as evidenced by this comment on Glaurung after he had driven off an Eldar scouting party from his lair at Nargoththrond:
'But he was slow now and stealthy; for all the fires in him were burned low: great power had gone out of him, and he would rest and sleep in the dark.'
(Unf 1 II, p.119)
Unlike the normal beastly creations of the Shadow, they were very intelligent creatures and had the power of speech. Furthermore they also possessed the power to control other people's mind.
'...Glaurung withheld his blast, and opened wide his serpent-eyes and gazed upon Túrin. Without fear Túrin looked into them as he raised up the sword; and straightway he fell under the blinding spell of the lidless eye of the dragon...'
(QS C21, p.257).
Glaurung's descendents had some similar power, as evidenced by the attempt of Smaug to place his spell on Bilbo Baggins. In his conversation with Smaug, whenever the dragon’s gaze swept where he hid, Bilbo felt an urge to reveal himself;
'In fact he was in grievous danger of coming under the dragon-spell.'
(TH, CXII, p.202)
All told, this combination of intelligence, physical strength and evil powers made the Great Worms one of the most infamous of Middle Earth's creatures.
Dragons were not just mindless servants of the Shadow; they had their own schemes and pleasures. This is most evident in their greedy desire for possession of treasure hoards and personal lairs. Both the power and desires of dragons is illustrated by the account of Glaurung's actions in the sack of the Elven fortress of Nagothrond:
'Then he [Glaurung] turned to his own pleasure, and sent forth his blast, and burned all about him. but all the Orcs that were busy in the sack he routed forth, and drove them away, and denied them their plunder even to the last thing of worth. The bridge he then broke down and cast into the foam of Narog; and being thus secure he gathered all the hoard and riches of Felagund and heaped them in the innermost hall, and rested a while'
(QS, C21, p.258)
An interesting aspect of Glaurung's dwelling in Nagothrond was that he had his own forces to command. This is implied in the following comment on the assault he organised against the Men of Brethil:
'But ere the end of the year Glaurung sent Orcs of his dominion against Brethil'
(QS, C21, p.265)
We do not hear of any later dragons commanding personal forces, though this cannot be ruled out. The evil spirit that dwelt within Glaurung was more powerful and cunning then his off-spring and so perhaps such command of followers was unique to dragons of the First Age.
Growth and Evolution in the First Age
Morgoth breed more dragons after Glaurung and through the long years of the First Age their numbers increased. By the time of Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, a number of dragons existed alongside Glaurung. With the power of the Eldar and Men broken, these fell creatures were free to roam Beleriand and beyond, though it is not known whether any took up their abode outside the Iron Mountains of Angband. Their number continued to grow, and this strength was mustered by Morgoth for the assault on Gondolin.
'At last...Morgoth was ready, and he loosed upon Gondolin his Balrogs, and his Orcs and his wolves; and with them came dragons of the brood of Glaurung, and they were become now many and terrible.'
(QS C23, p.292)
After he had all but gained the mastery of Beleriand, Morgoth experimented with a new breed of dragon, one that could fly. Though conceived as a means to extend his sway further and to seek out the hidden refuges of his remaining foes, they were not actually revealed until the tide of war had suddenly turned against Morgoth with the intervention of the Valar in the War of Wrath. However, the unleashed power of this new breed of dragon was terrifying:
'...and out of the pits of Angband there issued the winged dragons, that had not been seen; and so sudden and ruinous was the onset of that dreadful fleet that the host of the Valar was driven back, for the coming of the dragons was with great thunder, and lightning, and a tempest of fire.'
(QS C24, p.303)
The battle suddenly centred on this struggle between the Great Worms and the free creatures of the air, but the tide was turned by the heroism of EarÁ ndil and the Valar were triumphant.
'Before the rising of the sun EarÁ ndil slew Ancalagon the Black, the mightiest of the dragon-host, and cast him from the sky; and he fell upon the towers of Thangorodrim, and they were broken in his ruin. Then the sun rose, and the host of the Valar prevailed, and well-nigh all the dragons were destroyed...'
(QS C24, p.303)
As recorded, most of the Great Worms were slain in the War of Wrath...but Middle Earth was not rid of their kind for many ages. For some survived and crawled or flew eastwards out of the ruin of Morgoth's realm.
The Second And Third Age
We have little or no account of the activities of the Great Worms in the Second Age. Their continued presence is referred to in passing by a description in the Akallabêth of the dark years of Man in Middle Earth between the Fall of Beleriand and the voyages of the Numenoreans to Middle Earth:
'...and Men dwelt in darkness and were troubled by many evil things that Morgoth had devised in the days of his dominion: demons, and dragons, and mishapen beasts...'
(Akallabêth, SIL p.312)
There is a staggering five thousand year gap in the records of dragon activity, between the War of Wrath and the next documented outbreak of dragon attacks. They were no doubt active inbetween, though perhaps in lands of which no account reached the Eldar or Numenoreans.
Despite the gap in the records, it is possible to speculate that the Great Worms spread eastwards, beyond the Westlands of Middle Earth. There is an indirect clue given by the following passage in Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age:
'It is said that the foundation of the each of the Seven Hoards of the Dwarf-kings of old was a golden ring; but all those hoards long ago were plundered and the Dragons devoured them, and of the Seven Rings some were consumed in fire and some Sauron recovered.'
(Sil, Rings of Power, p.348)
The 'Seven Hoards' are presumably associated with the seven Dwarf Houses, of which only two were in the Westlands (Durin's, the father house, was at Khadzad-dûm, while the First Age mansions of Belegost-Nogrod in Ered Luin, I believe, formed another House). If the legend of the Seven Hoards is accurate, then Dwarven mansions in the east of Middle Earth were afflicted by dragons at various times between the middle of the Second Age and late Third Age (if we use the chronology of the Rings of Power).
The Great Worms reappear with certainty in the recorded tales of Man around 2000 T.A, in the far North, which is troubled on and off by these creatures for the remainder of the age. The first glimpse comes from the lore of the Rohirrim about their old lands in the Upper Anduin vale:
'Many lords and warriors, and many fair and valiant women, are named in the songs of Rohan that still remember the North. Frumgar, they say, was the name of the chieftain who led his people to Éothéod. Of his son, Fram, they tell that he slew Scatha, the great dragon of Ered Mithrin, and the land had peace from the long-worms afterwards.'
(LOTR App. A II, The House of Eorl, p.1039)
The movement of the Northmen to Éothéod followed the defeat of Angmar in 1975, so this would place the slaying of Scatha in the first century of the third millenium. The peace did not last, for after the loss of Khadzad-dûm to the Balrog in 1981, Durin's folk settled in new lands, among them Erebor and the Grey Mountains. The subsequent squabble between Fram and the Dwarves over Scatha's hoard would imply that by the time of the dragon's death, Durin's folk had already established mines, mansions and wealth in their new settlement's in the Grey Mountains. However, the new Dwarven realm eventually attracted the malicious interest of the northern dragons, as is recounted in the Red Book of Westmarch:
'But Thorin I his son removed and went into the far North to the Grey Mountain, where most of Durin's folk were now gathering; for those mountains were rich and little explored. But there were dragons in the wastes beyond; and after many years they became strong again and multiplied, and they made war on the Dwarves, and plundered their works. At last Dáin I, together with Frór his second son, was slain at the door of his hall by a great cold-drake.'
(LOTR App. A III, Durin's Folk, p.1046)
It is interesting to note that the reference to a 'cold-drake', a variant of dragon adapted to the cold wastes. The statement 'they made war on the Dwarves' is also significant, implying that the dragons were acting in concert. Previously it was only in the Darklord's campaigns that we hear of dragons operating in groups, whereas their penchant for personal lairs and treasure hoards suggests an individual nature.
Though the events described in this passage sound close together, they are given as centuries apart in the Tale of Years:
2210 Thorin I leaves Erebor, and goes north to the Grey Mountains where most of the remnant of Durin's folk are now gathering
2570 About this time Dragons reappear in the far North and begin to afflict the Dwarves
2589 Dain I slain by a Dragon
The pattern of events seems to be that the dragons present in the Northern Wastes were subdued after the slaying of Scatha, but, several centuries after the arrival of Durin's folk in the mountains, they were stirred to new evil by their thirst for treasure (but perhaps also desire to defend their breeding grounds) and successfully plundered the Dwarven mansions of Ered Lithum. Their success is indicated by the retreat of Dwarven settlement from the area after the death of their king:
'Not long after most of Durin's folk abandoned the Grey mountains.'
(LOTR App. A III, Durin's Folk, p.1046)
The rest of the North enjoyed only a short respite (relative to a dragon's outlook) from the depredations of the Great Worms. For less than two centuries after the flight of the Dwarves, the kingdoms of Dale and Erebor fell victim to the terror of the last great dragon, Smaug.
'...the rumour of the wealth of Erebor spread abroad and reached the ears of the dragons, and at last Smaug the Golden, greatest of the dragons of his day, arose and without warning came against King Thrór and descended on the mountain in flames.'
(LOTR App. A III, Durin's Folk, p.1047)
It is interesting to note that once Smaug had secured his new lair his attacks on the surrounding lands declined over the next one hundred and seventy years to the point where residents of nearby Lake Town could prosper and even discount the dragon's existence as legend. This suggests a cycle in a dragon's activities, once they reach maturity, of intense effort to gain their hoard, followed by periods of watchful rest from which they are distracted only by the need to feed, mate or defend their spoils.
Survival Beyond the Third Age
The saga of Bard of Esgorath's killing of Smaug is told elsewhere. Our accounts of the Great Worms draw to a close not long after, as the Third Age ends. By this time a change had come over the dragon race. Whether through natural evolution or the death of the strongest breeders, the members of that race lacked the power of their forebears. This decline is alluded to by Gandalf in coversation with Frodo:
'It has been said that dragon-fire could melt and consume the Rings of Power, but there is not any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough...'
(Gandalf to Frodo, LOTR B1 C2, p.59)
Such decline, whether in longevity, power, or knowledge, was not uncommon among the races of Middle Earth. Despite this, it is clear from Gandalf's words that dragons survived to trouble future ages: the possible existence of dragons in the east of Middle Earth has already been suggested, and the dragons that drove the Dwarves from the Grey Mountains were still in possession of their lairs and free to breed. Future generations would record the names, fell-deeds, and deaths of these Great Worms.
To turn aside from the pseudo-historical treatment of the subject so far, that we have as 'fact' the continued survival of the Great Worms is no accident of what was said or not said in Lord of the Rings. For J.R.R Tolkien, the account of dragons in Middle Earth provided the background for their presence in the tales of later Men, such as in the epic Beowulf. Such devices provided an imaginary continuity in history between Middle Earth and our own recorded history and legends. And by this reasoning it was clearly required for the dragons to live beyond the defeat of the Shadow and the end of the Third Age.
'They [Dragons] had not stopped; since they were active in far later times, close to our own.'
(J.R.R Tolkien, Letter No.144)
Though my own account ends here, delving into European lore, the source of Tolkien's inspiration for his own dragons, would doubtless yield further valuable insight into the nature of this terrifying creature. Tolkien's further comment's on dragon's are examined by Eugene C. Hargrove at http://www.phil.unt.edu/~hargrove/dragons.html.
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