| This article is about the long-worm. For the poem, see Scatha the Worm. |
- "He crawled
like a slow creeping death, too
horrible to flee from, froze Men with
fear and his icy breath, and then
crushed them, ground them, under
his long white belly." - —Scatha the Worm in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien[4]
Scatha, known as the Worm, was a blind[4] and silent[4] grey[4] long-worm with a white belly[4] that was known as the great Dragon of the Grey Mountains, in the north of Middle-earth.[3]
Biography[]
Little is told of Scatha's life, except that he had a vast den in the Grey Mountains[3] that "stank like a dark tomb" and contained a hoard of treasure which included "sharp bright stones" and a silver horn[1] made by the Dwarves[1]. He also collected bones as "toys", particularly "hands of dwarves and skulls of men" which he "piled in his den" as a "bed" and licked them clean.[4]
After Scatha was slain by Fram son of Frumgar in the early days of the Éothéod, peace came to the land, save for a great feud between Fram and the Dwarves of that region over Scatha's recovered hoard. The Dwarves claimed it as their own, but Fram rebuked their claim, refusing to even "yield them a penny" and instead sent them a necklace made of Scatha's teeth along with an insulting message. It was rumored that the Dwarves killed him for this insult.[3]
Fram after killing Scatha, by Matthew Stewart
The Men of Éothéod likely retained some of the hoard since the horn taken by Fram[4] was brought south by Eorl to Rohan. Many hundreds of years later, the horn was given to Meriadoc Brandybuck by Éowyn in the final months of the War of the Ring.[1]
Scatha and Fram, by Kip Rasmussen
Etymology[]
Scatha is a modernization of sceaða, a name in Old English meaning "injurer, enemy, robber" which represents an untold name in the language of the Éothéod.[5]
The name is likely related to "scathe", a name in modern English.[6]
In adaptations[]
In The Lord of the Rings Online, Scatha appears as a fire-drake in a flashback narrating the history of Fram and the Éothéod. The long-worm attacked Framsburg and mauled Frumgar's sword-arm, after which Fram swore revenge and hunted Scatha for two years before ultimately killing him with the aid of one of Sauron's servants. In the present day, the player locates the remainder of Scatha's hoard, which Fram was unable to bring with him.
Gallery[]
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Translations[]
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Arabic | سكاتها ? |
| Armenian | Սկատա |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | Ската |
| Bengali | স্ক্যাথা |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | Ската |
| Chinese | 史卡沙 |
| Georgian | სკათა |
| Greek | Σκάτα |
| Gujarati | સ્કાથ |
| Hebrew | סקאת'ה |
| Hindi | स्काथा |
| Japanese | スカサ |
| Kannada | ಸ್ಕಥಾ |
| Korean | 스카타 |
| Marathi | स्काथा |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | Скэта |
| Persian | اسکاتا |
| Polish | Skat |
| Russian | Ската |
| Serbian | Ската (Cyrillic) Skata (Latin) |
| Sinhalese | ස්කතා |
| Tamil | ஸ்கத |
| Telugu | స్కత |
| Thai | สคาธา |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | Ската |
| Dragons | |
|---|---|
| Ancalagon • Chrysophylax Dives • Glaurung • Gostir • Lhamthanc • Mottled Monster • Scatha • Smaug • Very Red | |
| Cold-drakes • Fire-drakes • Long-worms • Sea-serpents • Spark-dragons | |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Lord of the Rings, Vol. III: The Return of the King, Book Six, ch. VI: "Many Partings"
- ↑ Robert Foster, The Complete Guide to Middle-earth: The Definitive Guide to the World of J.R.R. Tolkien, entry "Scatha"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers, II: The House of Eorl
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, Volume Three, no. 177: "Scatha the Worm (c. 1954)"
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, "Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings", pg. 762 (entry Scatha)
- ↑ scathe (v.) at EtymOnline