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- "Now the least mighty - yet they were very great beside the Men of those days - are cold as in the nature of snakes and serpents, and of them a many having wings go with the uttermost noise and speed..."
- —"Turambar and the Foalókë" in The Book of Lost Tales Part Two
Cold-drakes was a type of non-fiery dragon that instead possessed an affinity to coldness.[1]
History[]
Being "the least mighty" of dragons, they lacked the power of all of Middle-earth's most infamous individuals (Ancalagon, Glaurung, and Smaug): the ability to breathe fire. Nonetheless, they were strong foes with iron-hard scales, wicked claws, bold tails and terrible fangs. Still yet, as shown with Scatha, one of the greatest of their kind, they possessed an icy "cold breath" which could freeze their prey and induce fear within them.[1]
Morgoth bred and used cold-drakes in the late First Age. Though most did not survive the War of Wrath at the end of that Age, some escaped eastward and remained in the Northern Waste, Grey Mountains, and Withered Heath.[3] As millennia passed, the cold-drakes multiplied and became a serious threat to the Dwarves in the late Third Age.[3] Eventually, in the year 2589, Dáin I, King of Durin's Folk, and his second son Frór were slain at the gates of their own hall by a gigantic cold-drake.[3] With the ongoing attacks of these fierce creatures, the majority of the Dwarves decided to migrate eastwards from the Grey Mountains. Soon afterwards, the Iron Hills and Lonely Mountain became the major dwellings of the Longbeards (the inhabitants of Khazad-dûm).
Four hundred years later, at the time of Bilbo Baggins' journey to Erebor, they seem to have left the Grey Mountains (as implied by Gandalf making no mention of them when describing the dangers of that region).
In adaptations[]
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game[]
The Cold-Drake is a dragon enemy created by Fantasy Flight Games for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. It is encountered in The Withered Heath adventure pack. The Cold-Drake lives in the harsh land of the Withered Heath. The player's heroes seek out clues of where the mother of the Fire-Drake they killed in the Iron Hills is. Soon they track down the Cold-Drake and corner it. After a fierce fight the heroes manage to slay the beast, but only to find out that it is not the dragon they where looking for; as it was smaller than the dragon they slayed earlier.
The Cold-Drake's armored scales are strong enough to shrug off all but heavy attackers. Its teeth and claws are sharp enough to shred even a fully armored warrior to pieces. However, unlike its Fire-Drake cousins, Cold-Drakes cannot breathe fire.
Strategy[]
The Cold-Drake's biggest threat to the players are its attack strength and special abilities. The Cold-Drake gains strength with more Dragon Signs in the victory display, which is a catch 22 as more Signs allows for players to deal more damage to it. The best way to defend against it is to either use characters with 4 or more defense (attachment buffs help a lot) or sacrifice a weaker ally. To defeat it, use either many 2-3 attack strength characters or with a few high attack characters. The Cold-Drake can only recieve up to 4 damage each round so it will take a minimum of 5 rounds to defeat it. The Cold-Drake can make an attack to every player at the start of the quest phase so it is important to have strong defenders or many allies as the fight with the Cold-Drake will be a tough one.
The Lord of the Rings Online[]
In The Lord of the Rings Online, Cold-drakes appear throughout the northern lands of Middle-earth, particularly in the Ered Mithrin where they serve "Hrímil Frost-Heart", a dragon who consumed one of the dwarven Rings of Power. Hrímil's mightiest spawn, the cold-drake "Vethúg Wintermind", was the one to slay King Dáin I and his son Frór in Thikil-gundu, "The Steel Keep" (otherwise known as Dáin's Halls). The game's cold-drakes often project icy breath, although the "cold breath"[1] of Tolkien's cold-drakes is never described within the legendarium.
Translations[]
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Afrikaans | Koue jakkalse |
| Albanian | Dragona të ftohta |
| Arabic | تنانين البارد |
| Armenian | Սառը դրակոններ |
| Azerbaijani | Soyuq əjdahalar |
| Basque | Hotza herensugeak |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | Халодныя драконы |
| Bengali | ঠান্ডা ড্রাগন |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | Студени дракони |
| Catalan | Dracs freds |
| Croatian | Hladni zmajevi |
| Czech | Chladní draci |
| Dutch | Koudedraken |
| Estonian | Külma draakonid |
| Faroese | Kaldadrekarnir |
| Finnish | Hyykäärmeet |
| Danish | Koldedrager |
| Georgian | ცივი დრაკონები |
| German | Kaltdrachen |
| Greek | Κρύους δράκους |
| Gujarati | ઠંડા ડ્રેગન |
| Hebrew | דרקוני הקור |
| Hindi | कोल्ड ड्रेगन |
| Hungarian | Hideg-sárkányok |
| Icelandic | Kaldirdrekar |
| Indonesian | Naga-naga dingin |
| Italian | Draghi freddi |
| Japanese | 冷血竜 |
| Kazakh | Суық айдаһарлар (Cyrillic) Swıq aydaharlar (Latin) |
| Kyrgyz Cyrillic | Суук-ажыдаарлар |
| Laotian | ມັງກອນເຢັນ |
| Latvian | Auksti pūķi |
| Lithuanian | Šalti drakonai |
| Luxembourgish | Kaledraachen |
| Macedonian Cyrillic | Ладни змејови |
| Malaysian | Naga-naga sejuk |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | Хүйтэн луунууд |
| Nepalese | ठण्ड ड्रेगनहरू |
| Norwegian | Kaldedrager |
| Persian | اژدهایان سرد |
| Polish | Smoki zimne |
| Portuguese | Dragões frios |
| Romanian | Dragonii rece |
| Russian | Холодные драконы |
| Scottish Gaelic | Drogaichean fuar |
| Serbian | Хладни Змајеви (Cyrillic) Hladni Zmajevi (Latin) |
| Sinhalese | සීතල මකරුන් |
| Slovak | Chladní draci |
| Slovenian | Hladni zmaji |
| Spanish | Dragones frios |
| Swedish | Kalldrakar |
| Tamil | குளிர் டிராகன்கள் |
| Telugu | కోల్డ్ డ్రాగన్స్ |
| Thai | มังกรเย็น |
| Turkish | Soğuk ejderhalar |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | Холодні-дракони |
| Vietnamese | Lạnh Con rồng |
| Uzbek | Совуқ аждарлар (Cyrillic) Sovuq ajdarlar (Latin) |
| Welsh | Dreigiau Oer |
| Yiddish | קאַלט דראַגאָנס ? |
| Yoruba | Tutu dragoni |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, Volume Three, no. 177: "Scatha the Worm (c. 1954)"
- ↑ The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, ch. 10: "Of the Return of the Ñoldor"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, "Durin's Folk"