Summary
When thinking of a classic fantasy story, dragons are one of the first things that come to mind, right? Dragons are integral to all kinds of various fantastical lore, andThe Lord of the Ringsis certainly no exception. MostLOTRfans are familiar with Smaug, the dragon fromThe Hobbitwho is one of the main antagonists of the story. The entire mission that Bilbo and the Dwarves set out on is to take back the Lonely Mountain from Smaug and reclaim their birthright. While Smaug is definitely the most well-knownLOTRdragon, he isn’t the only one.
There are probably a lot of people who wonder why dragons don’t feature more heavily in Middle-earth lore, as they seem to be a staple in most other fantasy stories. Smaug is the only dragon that really gets time to shine, and the other dragons of the world aren’t mentioned much in the main story ofThe HobbitandLOTR. However,in his other Middle-earth writings, Tolkien did write about the other dragons that once inhabited the world, and their stories are interesting. Who were the other dragons of Middle-earth, and why were they important?
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Glaurung
Glaurung (which, translated from Sindarin, means “gold-worm”) was the first dragon to inhabit Middle-earth. He was actuallybred by Morgoth, who had realized that Orc armies alone were not enough to defeat the Noldor and wanted to experiment with making new and deadlier creatures to add to his armies. He bred Glaurung for a century in the pits of Angband, until the dragon finally emerged in FA 260 and attacked the Elves responsible for the Siege of Angband. He did not have wings like the later dragons would, but he was still a terrifying enemy. He ravaged multiple towns and settlements, breathing his fire upon them.
Morgoth wanted Glaurung to grow in power even more, so he contained him in Angband again until the Fourth Battle of the Battles of Beleriand.No one could withstand his powernow that he was fully grown, and he led Morgoth’s army to victory during this battle. He also fought in the Fifth Battle and wreaked even more destruction, because now he also had a brood of dragons that he had fathered as well. The army was victorious in this battle as well, and Glaurung went on to fight many more times at his full power. At one point, he found a girl named Niënor in the forest and drove her mad with his gaze. She was found by Túrin, who (years later) went back to find the dragon and slew him with his sword. This was the end of the great dragon Glaurung, the first in Middle-earth.
Ancalagon the Black
If Glaurung was the first dragon in Middle-earth, Ancalagon was the largest. Often referred to as Ancalagon the Black, this beast was bred by Morgoth in the First Age and was one of the winged dragons. Morgoth sent out a legion of winged, fire-breathing dragons (led by Ancalagon) as his last ditch effort against the Valar. It worked, asthe armies of the Valarwere driven back from Angband. However, Eärendil came out of the West on a ship and brought the Eagles of Manwë with him to fight Ancalagon and the other dragons. After a full day of fighting, Ancalagon was defeated, marking the end of Morgoth’s last stand.
Scatha
Scatha was the greatest of the Long-worms, the dragons of Middle-earth that lacked legs and wings. These dragons tended to stay in the mountains, particularly the Grey Mountains, in the north of Middle-earth. Scatha, like most dragons, loved stealing treasure, andcaused a lot of issues for the Men and Dwarvesthat lived in the lands to the north of the Wilderland. Little is known about Scatha until his appearance in the history of the Third Age, when he was slain by Lord Fram, who lived in the Éothéod (the land where the ancestors of the Rohirrim dwelt). After Scatha was gone, there was peace in the land - other than the disputes over the dragon’s treasure hoard. One of the items found among his treasures was the silver Horn of Rohan that Eowyn later gives to Merry.
Gostir
Gostir is one of the Middle-earth dragons about which there is little that is known. He was one of the dragons of Morgoth, and his name means “dread glance”. The only appearance by this dragon in officialLord of the RingsIP is in theCreatures of Middle-earthsupplement ofMiddle-earth Role Playing(aDungeons and Dragons-esque game), where he appeared as a white Cold-drake (dragons who could not breathe fire but possibly had the ability to breathe ice) with red eyes who lived north of Rhûn.
