Timeline for What did Smaug eat for 60 years?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
13 events
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| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:43 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Mar 26, 2015 at 9:22 | comment | added | RicoRicochet | anyways, +1 from me since your argument is practical and valid.. way to use the toilet analogy... | |
| May 16, 2014 at 19:32 | comment | added | fantasywind | Actually we have proof that he left the Mountain in far later times, some of the older men from Esgaroth at the time of Thorin's arrival, had seen him in their younger days flying, also mentioned in another thread on this site: | |
| Jan 1, 2014 at 15:41 | history | edited | user8719 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Dec 19, 2013 at 15:06 | comment | added | PeterL | I guess that's where we differ -- to me it's a simpler explanation that he can grab a lot of ponies and people at once and then basically hibernate than it is to assume he stealthily left the mountain without being seen for so many years. Point is, both explanations are reasonable | |
| Dec 19, 2013 at 0:28 | comment | added | user8719 | @PeterL - realistically we don't have proof that he did but we don't have proof that he didn't either. In situations like this I'm a firm believer in Occams Razor - I'd be more inclined to demand proof that he didn't than I would be to demand proof that he did. | |
| Dec 18, 2013 at 15:19 | comment | added | PeterL | I don't think I ever reasoned nor claimed he only eats people. Merely pointing out that from what I can recall and what others have posted here, we don't have proof the claim in the question that Smaug went without food is wrong. Certainly Smaug leaving the mountain undetected to go raid elsewhere is a possibility and a valid answer, but all answers at this point seem to be speculative based on personal opinion and interpretation of the limited points of fact we are given. | |
| Dec 18, 2013 at 8:34 | comment | added | user8719 | @PeterL - see WOPR's answer below too. Also, there is a flaw in your reasoning and that's the assumption that Smaug only eats people. We know from the book that he ate ponies too, so what's to stop him from flying North or East (i.e. away from nearby settlements) to catch wild goats, for example? | |
| Dec 16, 2013 at 23:27 | comment | added | PeterL | "for some time" as you say, but how long a time? How long did it take a dragon before Dale was ruined, and all the people dead or gone? Similarly, in the first quote Thorin admits his information is out of date and the behavior of the dragon may have changed. We also don't know that Lake Town has needed its anti-dragon defences in the past few years. All of the quotes support that he came out for a while, but it had been 171 years between the arrival of Smaug and the events of The Hobbit. Pretty subjective unless there are more specific quotes. | |
| Dec 16, 2013 at 23:14 | vote | accept | Kim Rudolph | ||
| Dec 16, 2013 at 19:46 | comment | added | user8719 | @KimRudolph - the quote I provided from the book seems to claim otherwise, don't you think? It seems to indicate that Smaug definitely came out for some time after he sacked the Mountain, and explicitly to raid Dale. This isn't personal opinion - it's a quote from the book. | |
| Dec 16, 2013 at 19:42 | comment | added | Kim Rudolph | But Jimmy, the town of Dale was quickly depopulated and decimated. It could not have been a source of food for long. Likewise, Laketown does not seem to have been visited by the dragon in recent memory, judging by the vague recollections of the dragon and no immediate sense of fear felt by the inhabitants. It seems that Smaug has not hunted men for a good many years by the time of the Hobbit. I do think he was hibernating for a while. | |
| Dec 16, 2013 at 19:13 | history | answered | user8719 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |