Who is smaug in the hobbit

Smaug is huge. Everyone knows that. Although he is described as immense, how immense is open to interpretation. For cinematic effect, in the movies, Smaug dramatically increases in size. His size in the original designs is mentioned to be meters in length, which is bigger than two jumbo jets. Even if Smaug is really somewhere between the two sizes, he is a big fellow. Especially compared to a hobbit. Some people have theorized that Gandalf was not only compelled to defeat the dragon due to his friendship with the Dwarven Company but also because he knew Sauron was rising again.

If Sauron had sided with the Great Dragon, the War of the Ring may have gone differently for the heroes. Tolkien confirmed in a letter that Smaug was the last of his kind, the last of the Great Fire-drakes of Middle-earth. This implies that dragons of lesser stature, such as smaller Cold-drakes or Fire-drakes, did live on.

While the TV movie remains quite faithful to the story, it is pitched at children, and so features musical numbers and a simplified plot. Some of the art choices are a little odd. The most famously jarring design choice is that of the Wood-Elves, who, rather than appear as fair folk, are outright ugly, with grey skin and leaves in their blonde hair. Unusually, they choose to make Smaug hairy and cat-like in appearance, complete with whiskers.

At first this comes across as an odd choice but it actually makes a lot of sense. Additionally, Tolkien does make at least one reference to catlike traits when describing Smaug. Their work on the creatures of The Lord of the Rings is widely seen as a huge step forward for computer-animated characters. While Orcs and Gollum were at least rooted in something relatedly human, Smaug was a whole new challenge.

Smaug went through some surprising changes in the movies. Originally, Smaug was envisioned as huge and intimidating, with six limbs four legs and two wings easily spotted in the prologue of the theatrical release of An Unexpected Journey. Eagle-eyed viewers would notice that this was changed for the next film, where the dragon is revealed as having four limbs two back legs and two front legs with his wings attached.

It can be gleaned from references that the Old Worm made that he is pretty old. It is known that Smaug drove the Dwarves out of their mountain stronghold over years prior to the events of The Hobbit so it appears that watching years go by was pretty average to the creature. There is a general feeling in The Hobbit, which Smaug references, that he is a veteran now.

He described how he fought the warriors of old when he was young and tender but now he is old and strong. We will never know how long Smaug might have lived undisturbed by Dwarves and Hobbit Burglars.

It is possible that living "practically forever" is in comparison to mortal races, but perhaps he really would have lived for centuries more. In fact, four of the seven rings gifted to the Dwarves were described as being consumed by dragon fire. So Smaug flies out to destroy Lake-town. Bilbo, for his part, has found out that Smaug has a weak point. But he has also accidentally endangers Lake-town. Luckily, a helpful thrush carries this news about the weak point to Bard, the heroic archer of Lake-town who then brings down Smaug.

Unfortunately, Smaug's giant body falls right on top of Lake-town and crushes it, but we suppose he can't be blamed for that one.

In addition to the obvious dragon qualities of greed, murderousness, and cruelty, Tolkien's Smaug shows us one more, slightly unusual aspect of dragon character. According to Tolkien, dragons are incredibly persuasive. Just by talking to Bilbo, Smaug almost manages to convince him that the dwarves are secretly planning some kind of double-cross of their trusty burglar.

As with pretty much everything in Tolkien, this idea of dragons as silver-tongued has a long history in folklore. How J. Tolkien Created a New Mythology. New York: HarperCollins, , pg. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. Previous Next. Smaug Smaug is a "most especially greedy, strong, and wicked" 1. Thorin refused to share the treasure and, as a result, they both declared war on him. It is said that a vast fortune in gemstones lay with Smaug's rotting carcass amongst the pilings of old Lake-town, but few had the courage to dive for them in later years.

Gandalf would later note the good fortune of the dragon's destruction, as otherwise Smaug might have proved a serious menace in the War of the Ring. In Slavic cultures, 'Smok' "serpent" and 'Tsmok' "sucker" have been used as aliases for "dragons".

During the conversation between Smaug and Bilbo, Bilbo calls him several names and epithets, such as Smaug the :. Smaug's actual size is unknown as it is never explicitly mentioned in The Hobbit , and illustrations by Tolkien, Alan Lee , and John Howe greatly vary in size in each portrait while the size of the front gate of the dwarven kingdom in illustrations seems similar to what was depicted in the live action films.

In The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad , Smaug is said to be about 18 meters 59 feet in length, but this is to be considered non-canonical. Tolkien gives some indication later of the dragon's size in relation to the depiction of Bilbo as portrayed in the original illustration for The Hobbit in Letter 27 , which was published in The Letters of J.

Tolkien :. One of few other descriptions available by Tolkien is that the Secret Tunnel , with 5 feet tall door and passage wide enough for three people to walk together, was too small for the dragon even when he was young, and he could only put the tip of his jaw into the passage when he was grown and breathed out fire and vapor not from his jaw but from his nostrils instead.

It is unclear whether Smaug, the largest specimen in the Third Age, would compete in mightiness to his ancestors of average size in the First Age , though he was clearly smaller than Ancalagon , the largest known dragon to have existed. Being a fully-grown dragon, Smaug was both massive and powerful, possessing physical strength capable of crushing stone with ease, as seen by his attack on the Lonely Mountain.

He was able to fly thanks to his large wings, and had the ability to breathe streams of searing hot flame and vapour from his mouth and nostrils. Some comments in The Hobbit imply that his entire body was imbued with fire, as he was seen to glow in the darkness of the Lonely Mountain's depths, and his usual paths were said to have been "smoothed and slimed" i.

Like many dragons of Middle-earth, Smaug's monstrous appearance also belied keen senses and a dangerously sharp mind. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of his treasure hoard, immediately registering the theft of a single cup after Bilbo made his first visit to his lair. When the hobbit returned a second time, Smaug was already expecting him by feigning sleep, and immediately declared that he could sense the thief even if he could not see him.

Although Bilbo was clever enough not to fall for Smaug's attempts to trick him into revealing his exact position, the dragon used the resulting conversation to plant doubts in Bilbo's mind, correctly guessing that the "burglar" had allied himself with the Dwarves and the men of Lake Town and asking if Bilbo had ever considered the logistical difficulties of getting his share of Smaug's treasure back to his home. Despite his size, Smaug is shown to be agile and quick, able to leap over objects with ease, and he can dive at very high speeds with little effort.

Defensively, Smaug's reddish-gold scales rendered him impervious to nearly all weapons, but his underbelly was relatively soft and vulnerable. To compensate for this, Smaug took to sleeping upon the gathered treasure of the Lonely Mountain, allowing bits of gold and jewels to embed themselves in his body. This "diamond waistcoat" was intended to cover his only physical weak spot, but when Bilbo Baggins confronted the dragon in his lair, he discovered a bare patch on the left side of his chest.

Bard was told this by an ancient thrush that overheard Bilbo relating this information to the Dwarves, enabling him to defeat Smaug by shooting his Black Arrow into the bare patch. Smaug is shown to be, though highly intelligent, violent, cruel, arrogant, and greedy, possessing an unquenchable desire for gold. His most distinguishing characteristic aside from his greed is his arrogance, as Smaug proudly boasts of his superiority and impregnability to Bilbo during their encounter.

However, this proves to be his downfall, as he unwittingly reveals the weak spot in his chest to Bilbo when showing the Hobbit how he had willfully coated his underbelly in treasure to protect it. Smaug seems primarily motivated by personal greed rather than a desire to do evil, and does not seem to serve any allegiance other than his own.

While he does ruthlessly destroy Dale and lays waste to the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain during his attack on the Lonely Mountain, once he has assumed dominion of the region he seems content to allow the rest of Middle Earth to go about its business, so long as he or his treasure remains undisturbed; although this could be because he feels that the people living in the region have nothing he wants. Highly intelligent, Smaug appears to possess a rather sardonic sense of humor, darkly mocking Bilbo while they converse within the Lonely Mountain's treasure chamber.

While conversing with Bilbo, Smaug is also able to quickly surmise the reason for Bilbo's presence in Erebor, and also correctly deduces that the Dwarves received aid from the men of Esgaroth in reaching the mountain. Although Smaug makes no appearance in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he is indirectly mentioned by Gandalf during his conversation with Frodo near the beginning of the The Fellowship of the Ring.

When Frodo jokingly tells Gandalf that the other hobbits have officially labelled him a "disturber of the peace", Gandalf responds with "if you're referring to the incident with the dragon, I was barely involved".

Additionally, when Gandalf visits Bag End, he picks up the old map of the Lonely Mountain from Bilbo's desk, which has an illustration of Smaug on it. Smaug is voiced and interpreted with performance capture by Benedict Cumberbatch in Peter Jackson's three part adaptation of The Hobbit.

Smaug is presented with a long, serpentine neck; a crest of spurs on his head; a crocodilian facial shape; a compact torso with a streamlined shape; spines and spikes along his back and the back of his neck; stocky hind-legs; a very long tail; mostly dark-red scales which turn dull-golden on his underside; and gleaming, orange-yellow eyes coloured like fire, with slit-pupils which possess an intricate, keyhole-like shape.

He has a deep, resonant voice with an underlying growl. He appears in the prologue of the first film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , described as a "fire drake from the north" before taking residence in the Lonely Mountain.

Only small parts of him are glimpsed throughout the film: his legs, tail, a small part of his head, and his wings as he flies over Dale, and his eye when he is sleeping in his mound of treasure, in the final scene. In addition, he is a topic of discussion amongst the White Council as Gandalf cites his reason to support Thorin Oakenshield's quest.

When Thorin and Company arrived at the Lonely Mountain and sent their burglar Bilbo Baggins to find the Arkenstone , the Hobbit unwittingly caused a landslide amongst the mountainous pile of treasures, uncovering the dragon.

Smaug stirred from his sleep, suspicious that someone was in the chamber with him. Although Bilbo was forced to use his ring to keep out of sight from the dragon, Smaug was immediately aware of his presence by his scent which the smell of hobbit was unknown to him. He began to search for Bilbo, beckoning him to come out from where he was hiding and when Smaug got too close, the Hobbit was overcome with fear and attempted to run, only to alert the dragon, who chased after him through the chamber.

Bilbo evaded him and hid behind a massive pillar, still under the cloak of the ring. Smaug continued his search and claimed that he was aware of the ring in Bilbo's possession and that he sensed that Bilbo has something "made of gold, but far more precious," which in turn forced the Hobbit to remove the ring. Smaug was amused by Bilbo's knowledge of who he was, and began his conversation with the Hobbit in order to deduce his origins.

During their conversation, the Hobbit then tried to lie to Smaug by claiming that he was no more than a simple traveler who came to the mountain alone to see the dragon, as he didn't believe the tales about him.

The dragon asked Bilbo if he thought flattery would keep him alive, and asked who he was and where he came from. Bilbo later made his riddle talk by claiming that he "came from under the hill and over hills and under hills his path had led", and through the air he was "he who walks unseen". Smaug hardly believed him but asked Bilbo what also did he claim to be and the Hobbit answered that he was the "luck-wearer", "riddle-maker", and "barrel-rider".

The dragon then revealed that he knew that the dwarves were outside of the mountain, although Bilbo whose eyes were on the Arkenstone tried to deny it, with Smaug not taking the bait.

Later on, Smaug tried to take away Bilbo's friendship with Thorin by lying to him, claiming that the dwarf was using him and found his fate worth nothing, but the Hobbit refused to believe him.

Smaug was intrigued by his word and wanted to know what reward Thorin was willing to give him if he succeeded in finding the Arkenstone before stating that he would never give away any of treasure, not even a single coin.

During the game, Smaug discerned the Hobbit's attempt at stealing the jewel and kept Bilbo from catching the Arkenstone, boasting about his superiority. During the chase, Smaug showed Bilbo his underbelly, coated in gems, and the Hobbit caught a glimpse of a single missing scale. Bilbo used his ring to escape and managed to get the Arkenstone while Smaug flew around in rage and unleashed a torrent of flames around the treasure chamber in an attempt to roast the Hobbit alive before he can escape.