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The appearance of Smaug in the 1977 Rankin-Bass adaptation of The Hobbit was the result of artistic license and the nationality of the animators. The animation team was from Japan, and they depicted Smaug as a sort of hybrid of western dragons and Japanese dragons. However, Tolkien does make at least one reference to catlike traits when describing Smaug.
...
98
Why doesn't Smaug die in the 2nd Hobbit film if it was titled the 'Desolation of Smaug'? [duplicate]
It means "the desolation caused by Smaug".
In the book, this is the description given to the barren area around the Mountain, specifically to the south and west. (The map displays north to the left.)
In two days going they rowed right up the Long Lake and passed out into the River Running, and now they could all see the Lonely Mountain towering grim and ...
80
It is just something that Dragons do in Tolkien's legendarium. It's in their nature. From The Hobbit:
Dragons steal gold and jewels, you know, from men and elves and dwarves, wherever they can find them; and they guard their plunder as long as they live (which is practically forever, unless they are killed), and never enjoy a brass ring of it. Indeed they ...
51
Hobbits are capable of moving with extreme stealth when they so choose, sufficiently quietly for this job. Here is a description from the book:
But at any rate hobbits can move quietly in woods, absolutely quietly. They take a pride in it, and Bilbo had sniffed more than once at what he called "all this dwarvish racket," as they went along, though I don'...
48
In the book, as well as the movie, there was a main entrance to Erebor—the Front Gate, where the dragon had come in to begin with. When the dwarves first discuss the mission with Bilbo, Thorin mentions that they had considered getting in this way;
But we none of us liked the idea of the Front Gate. The river runs right out of it through the great ...
46
This is addressed in the appendices:
Tolkien, J. R. R. "Appendix E – Writing and Spelling: I. Pronunciation
of Words and Names". The Lord of the Rings.: "All these diphthongs
were 'falling' diphthongs, that is stressed on the first element, and
composed of the simple vowels run together. Thus ... au (aw) as in
loud, how and not laud, haw."
I didn'...
46
Why doesn't Smaug die in the 2nd Hobbit film if it was titled the 'Desolation of Smaug'? [duplicate]
The Desolation of Smaug does not mean the Destruction of Smaug.
Dictionary Definition
Definition of desolation
the action of desolating
the pitiful desolation and slaughter of World War I — D. F. Fleming
grief, sadness
... he put his trembling hands to his head, and gave a wild ringing scream, the cry of ...
36
I have not found any good picture illustrating it yet (contributions are welcome), but in the movie Smaug's belly skin shows visible glowing cracks every time he prepares to breath fire (which is in itself quite a nice cue that you want to run or hide very fast).
This indicates that his fire is not only some kind of flammable gas he only lights up in his ...
34
Although Tolkien never makes any outright claims to Smaug being reptilian he does make a few statements about Smaug being a Lizard or lizard-like
“Oh yes, very much so. Except no, Fafnir was a human or humanoid being who took this form, whereas Smaug is just pure intelligent lizard.”
The History of the Hobbit - Endnotes, Note 10
Tolkien clearly thought ...
32
It might actually kill Smaug, though for completely different reasons than what the movie scene suggests.
As already said, the temperature of molten gold should hardly be impressive to a fire-drake – which does however not imply that they can necessarily cope with getting completely immersed in it.
But, it's rather absurd that Smaug ever sinks in the ...
32
In The Hobbit, Smaug specifically denies that he was "quite large and quite old" when he attacked Erebor and Dale:
"I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong, strong, strong, Thief in the Shadows!"
(The Hobbit, Chapter 9, "Inside Information")
Thus it is quite ...
31
"Therefore names such as Sauron or Smaug are pronounced like Sow-ron or sm-ow-g."
According to the LOTR Wiki.
Also this references Appendix E – Writing and Spelling: I. Pronunciation of Words and Names.
I had always read it as sm-og until I heard the guys from MST3K / RiffTrax say it this other way. Then I looked it up.
28
According to the description of the events given on page 254 in chapter 14, Fire and Ice , Smaug's bones remained where they had fallen. As far as I can recall, their status wasn't mentioned again in the post-Hobbit Lord Of The Rings novels.
They removed northward higher up the shore; for ever after they had a
dread of the water where the dragon lay. He ...
26
Some real-world animals are thought to be able to go for a very long time without food, relatively speaking. For example, crocodiles can go over a year without eating and this page says it "is typical" for some snakes in the wild to go without food for 6 months.
If we assume that Smaug gorged himself after coming to Erebor and slowed his metabolism in the ...
23
In his 1938 letter the the Editor of the Observor, Tolkien explicitly stated that the name Smaug is derived from the low Germanic; "To squeeze through a hole".
"The dragon bears as name – a pseudonym – the past tense of the
primitive Germanic verb Smugan, to squeeze through a hole: a low
philological jest. The rest of the names are of the Ancient and ...
20
The events are consistent with the book. Laketown was previously known to Smaug as Esgaroth.
“I don’t know if it has occurred to you that, even if you could steal the gold bit by bit—a matter of a hundred years or so—you could not get it very far? Not much use on the mountain-side? Not much use in the forest? Bless me! Had you never thought of the catch? ...
20
It looks like your answer contains all the detail that was in the story. All of the dwarves stayed in the lonely mountain so the bulk of the treasure stayed there.
Bard requested a share of the hoard because Smaug sacked Dale, including the emeralds of Girion, which the Elven king ended up with because he loved forest green gems so much.
I don't think ...
17
I think that the best answer we can give is out-of-universe: it creates drama.
In the book, there is no indication at all that Smaug in any way whatsoever was aware or tempted by the Ring. He was simply curious because someone entered his bedroom who
Smaug didn't know the smell of (even lots the very wise have never heard of Hobbits...)
entertained him ...
17
Smaug was already a well-known & feared creature by the time he flew down from the North to conquer Erebor. He was considered to be the last Great Dragon by any who knew of such things. This would presumably include the royal family and/or advisors of a great Dwarven kingdom, as well as most elves.
His name was definitely known by men at least by the ...
16
Smaug himself gives the answer
"I kill where I wish and none dare resist!"
Smaug is quite capable of long distance flight when hunting, having flown from the Withered Heath, north of the Grey Mountains, to attack Erebor.
South of the River Running there is the Kingdom of Rhovanian, which extends to the east as far as the inland Sea of Rhûn; north to ...
16
Tolkien doesn't give many statements that allow us to pinpoint Smaug's age, but we can cross-reference what is said in the Hobbit with other sources and make a reasonable guess.
First of all, to summarize the Hobbit, we have a general statement on the lifespan of dragons:
...they guard their plunder as long as they live (which is practically forever, ...
15
I was caught off guard by this in the movie too, and I think it is just a writer's error:
In the first movie, we see that Thorin earns his name 'Oakenshield' during the Battle of Azanulbizar (Moria), which is after they have fled from Smaug and Erebor. Therefore, unless Smaug heard of this name while out feeding on animals or something of the sort then he ...
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