Dragons

"Never laugh at live dragons."

- Bilbo Baggins

Dragons were mighty reptilian creatures who ranked among the most feared of the servants of the Dark Lord. Of the origins of dragons, no tale tells; the first of them to be seen was Glaurung, Father of Dragons, who first issued from Angband in the middle of the First Age. After Glaurung came many others to strike fear into Elves and Men for the next three ages; among them were Ancalagon the first winged dragon, Scatha who dwelt in the cold northern wastes, and Smaug, last of the great dragons.

Dragons have powers of intelligence and speech, and many are also able to cast the dragon-spell, a bewildering confusion that affects any who gaze into the eye of the creature.

The dragons were not destroyed at the end of the Third Age; some are said to have survived to our own time, but the great worms and drakes of the Elder Days are no more.

All were created by Morgoth during the First Age, when Glaurung first appeared.

Taxonomy
Tolkien designed his own taxonomic system for dragons, based on two factors:

Means of locomotion

 * Some dragons (Glaurung) walked on four legs, like a Komodo dragon or some other lizard.
 * Other dragons (Ancalagon, Smaug) could both walk on four legs and fly using wings. Winged-dragons only first appeared during the War of Wrath, the battle that ended the First Age, so all dragons introduced before the end of the First Age couldn't fly (such as Glaurung), although breeds of wingless dragons did survive into later ages.

Fire breathing

 * The Urulóki (singular Urulok&euml;, Fire-drakes) could breathe fire. It is not entirely clear whether the term "Uruloki" referred only to the first dragons such as Glaurung that could breathe fire but were wingless, or to any dragon that could breathe fire, and thus including all other dragons.
 * In the LotR appendixes Tolkien mentioned a "Cold-drake". It is commonly assumed, though not stated, that this term indicated a dragon which could not breathe fire.

Other characteristics
All of Tolkien's dragons also shared a love of treasure (especially gold), subtle intelligence, immense cunning, great physical strength, and a hypnotic power called "dragon-spell". The best way to talk to a dragon in the circumstances of this spell (when it was questioning you) was not to directly give it the information it wanted, as this would compromise you and your friends, but not to flat out deny it an answer, because this would anger it to violence. Therefore, the best way to talk to the dragon is to be vague and speak in riddles &mdash; apparently dragons find it hard to resist wasting time with riddles.

Dragon-fire (of the Urulóki) was hot enough to melt Rings of Power: Four of the Seven Rings of the Dwarves were consumed by Dragon-fire, although it was not powerful enough to destroy the One Ring itself (it is stated by Gandalf that one of the great dragons of old may have been able to accomplish this, however).

Named dragons

 * Glaurung &mdash; Father of Dragons, slain by Túrin Turambar. First of the Uruloki, the Fire-drakes of Angband. He had four legs and could breathe fire, but didn't have wings.
 * Ancalagon the Black &mdash; mightiest of the Winged-dragons, slain by Eärendil in the War of Wrath.
 * Scatha &mdash; Slain by Fram of the Éothéod. Described as a "long-worm", although this imparticular term seems to be more of an expression rather than a separate taxonomic group.
 * Smaug &mdash; great dragon of Middle-earth, slain by Bard of Esgaroth. A winged Urulokë.

Other dragons were present at the Fall of Gondolin. In the late Third Age the dragons bred in the Northern Waste and Withered Heath north of the Ered Mithrin. Dáin I of Durin's folk was killed by a cold-drake.

Non-Canon dragons
Iron Crown Enterprises, when they possessed the licensing rights for games made from Tolkien's novels, expanded the selection of named dragons considerably in both Middle-earth Role Playing and The Wizards, a trading card game set in Middle-Earth.

EA Games created the character of "Drogoth the Dragon Lord" as a hero for the Goblin faction for their game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II.

External link

 * Encyclopedia of Arda article on Middle-earth's dragons
 * Ardapedia article on Middle-earth's dragons in slovak