Smaug

"My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail is a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!"

- Smaug

One of the last great dragons of Middle-earth, Smaug, a winged fire-breathing drake, rose to prominence by laying waste to the town of and capturing the Lonely Mountain (Erebor) with all of its treasure. These events occurred some 150 years before the events of The Hobbit, and Smaug was already centuries old at the time.

His invasion of Erebor and his possession of the Lonely Mountain made him extremely wealthy, since the Lonely Mountain was once home of Dwarves and still held much of their treasure. Smaug lived there for many years, until he was slain during the events of The Hobbit.

History
"Revenge! Revenge! The King under the Mountain is dead and where are his kin that dare seek revenge? Girion Lord of Dale is dead, and I have eaten his people like wolf among sheep. And where are his sons' sons that dare approach me? I kill where I wish and none dare resist."

- Smaug





The chronologies of the Westlands tell of how, in the twenty-eighth century of the Third Age, the mightiest Dragon of the Age came from the north to the great kingdom of the Dwarves in Erebor, the Lonely Mountain. The Fire-drake called Smaug the Golden was vast and bat-winged and a fearsome bane to Dwarves and Men. With consuming Dragon-flame, Smaug ruined the city of the Men of Dale and broke the door and wall of the Lonely Mountain. The Dwarves then fled or were slain and Smaug took the riches of the mountain and the town: Gold and Gemstones, Mithril and Silver, elf gems and pearls, the many faceted crystals of emerald, sapphire and diamond, as well as the Arkenstone.



For two centuries, Smaug ruled the Lonely Mountain uncontested, laying waste to the lands around the mountain, so that the blasted domain of the Dragon of Erebor became known as the Desolation of Smaug. Yet in the year TA 2941, a company of 14 adventurers led by the heir of the former Dwarf-kingdom, Thorin Oakenshield, entered Smaug's mountain by a secret door. One of the party, Hobbit 'burglar' Bilbo Baggins, approached the Fire-drake by stealth and was surprised to find that Smaug was larger than he had expected. Smaug was armored, as all of his race, with scales of impenetrable iron, but, in wariness, he protected his soft underbelly from assault: as he lay sprawled upon the wealth of his hoard he allowed diamonds and hard gemstones to imbed in his belly, armoring his only weakness.



During a confrontation with the Dragon, Baggins noticed one missing scale on the monster's left breast, nearest his heart. With this invaluable information, he escaped the Mountain and, while discussing Smaug's weakness with the Dwarves, he was overheard by a friendly bird (a thrush), who carried the secret to Bard the Bowman in nearby Esgaroth (Laketown).

The burgling of the Hobbit aroused Smaug and he came out in fiery wrath and loosed his flame upon the land. In vengeance, he went to the town built on the Long Lake (Laketown), and devastated it. In the midst of the wreck, Bard the Bowman, heir to the throne of Dale, did his best to rally the defenders. Bard, guided by his knowledge of Smaug's secret weakness, shot a magic black arrow into the beast's chest. Screaming in fury and pain, Smaug fell, crashing into the flaming ruins of Laketown.

After Death


After Smaug's death, Thorin and Company claimed the treasure as theirs by birthright. This created a conflict with Bard and the Elvish king Thranduil of Mirkwood, each of whom wanted a portion of the gold as reimbursement for all the damage Smaug had caused their kingdoms over the years. 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 Laketown, but few had the courage to dive for them in later years. With no Dragon to contend, the survivors of the town rebuilt—on dry land next to the lake.

Smaug's scales
Smaug's scales rendered him almost invulnerable, and made even stronger by jewels plastered to them from decades of lying on them. This is described as a diamond waistcoat. However, when Bilbo Baggins confronted him in his lair, he discovered a bare patch on his underbelly, on the left side of his chest. Bard was told this by a ancient thrush that was there when Bilbo told the dwarven company what happened when he was with Smaug, and Bard used this knowledge to defeat Smaug by shooting his Black Arrow into the bare patch.

Personality
Smaug is portrayed as being arrogant, and greedy, having an unquenchable desire for gold, and not caring who gets in his way for more. He appears to possess a rather sardonic sense of humor, mocking Bilbo darkly while they are talking. Smaug seems to dislike Dwarves, or at least thinks little of them, which is seen when he openly defiles their territory, and makes unfavorable comments about Thror.

The most distinguishing characteristic of the dragon (aside from his greed), is his arrogance. Smaug thinks very highly of himself, loudly boasting his superiority. This proves to be his downfall, as he was not able to recognize his own weaknesses.

Despite these dark characteristics, Smaug is not pure evil, so much as he is just greedy. While he does ruthlessly destroy, after claiming Erebor for himself, he was apparently content to allow the rest of Middle Earth to go about its business so long as he is not disturbed.

Films
In the 1977 animated version of The Hobbit, Smaug was voiced by Richard Boone, and his head looked much like a cat's.

Video games
In the 2003 video game release, Smaug was voiced by James Horan.

Director Peter Jackson has stated that in his 2013 film adaption, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Smaug will be created through the use of motion capture performance, performed and voiced by actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who will also be providing the voice of The Necromancer.

Smaug has a very brief appearance in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, during the opening prologue and the ending, but only portions of him can be seen, not his full body.

Behind the Scenes
In the books, the name Smaug is presented as a translation of the "original Dalish" Trâgu, and is related to Sméagol/Trahald. According to Tolkien, the name Smaug is "the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb Smugan, to squeeze through a hole" (Letter No. 31); others have noted that it has echoes of "smoke" and "smog", though this connection is illusory at best, since in Tolkien's phonology, the "au" phoneme is pronounced like the "ou" phoneme in sound or house. Therefore names such as Sauron or Smaug are pronounced like Sow-ron or sm-ow-g.

According to Michael Noer, writing for Forbes Magazine, Smaug is the wealthiest fictional character, with a treasure having a calculated valuation of over 62 billion dollars.

External link


Smaug Smaug Смог