![\"Anne](\"http:\/\/img-www.theonering.net\/images\/scrapbook\/b\/18478_b.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center>Celebriel<\/strong> writes, Who better to talk about dragons at Dragon*Con than Tolkien scholar and author Anne Petty? Anne\u2019s talk, \u201cGlaurung vs Smaug: Dragon Smackdown,\u201d helped kick off the Tolkien Track on Friday and was repeated on Sunday.<\/p>\nAnne reminded us that Tolkien called dragons \u201ca potent creation of men\u2019s imagination,\u201d and she took us through the characteristics of dragons and dragon tales as classified in Finnish scholar Antti Aarne\u2019s Tale Type Index, published in 1910 and now known as the Aarne-Thompson Tale Type Index after English translator and scholar Stith Thompson. These include:<\/p>\n
- \n
- The hero fights a mythical dragon<\/li>\n
- The dragon sleeps on treasure<\/li>\n
- A human steals from the dragon\u2019s horde<\/li>\n
- The dragon guards a water source<\/li>\n
- Dragon\u2019s blood is poisonous<\/li>\n
- Dragons\u2019 eyes and their voices can cast spells<\/li>\n
- Dragon\u2019s blood gives magical properties<\/li>\n
- Dragon\u2019s have an exposed vulnerability (which the hero or an accomplice must discover)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Anne explained that Tolkien knew dragons from childhood, from stories in Andrew Lang\u2019s Red Fairy Book, first published in 1890 and still in print, which included \u201cThe Story of Sigurt.\u201d He visualized dragons as worms, long and skinny, and in length 20 feet or more, very different from the squat, bulky dragons known most commonly in the west from the St. George legend. She noted that the dragon in the Rankin-Bass animated \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d of 1977 is fairly is close to Tolkien\u2019s vision – an Eastern dragon not a Western one.<\/p>\n
With this background, Anne developed the contrasts and comparisons between Glaurung and Smaug. Glaurung is a dragon of the First Age, the first of Morgoth\u2019s great dragons. His name means \u201cburning,\u201d suggesting that he is a firedragon or uruloki.<\/p>\n
Tolkien describes him as a \u201cgolden dragon of Morgoth,\u201d \u201cthe father of dragons\u201d and \u201cthe golden dragon of the god of hell.\u201d In personality, Glaurung is impulsive and calculating in a human sort of way. Glaurung is relative young \u2013 we know this because in his early battles his platelike armor has not completely hardened. In \u201cThe Children of Hurin,\u201d Turin kills Glauring by stabbing him from beneath. His vulnerability was ignoring or underestimating humans in his focus on the elves.<\/p>\n
Smaug, also called a worm and a winged firedrake, is the last of the dragons. He doesn\u2019t work for Sauron or Morgoth but is a free agent. He lives in under the Lonely Mountain (Erebor), which he took from the dwarves, and is red gold in color.<\/p>\n
His name means \u201cto squeeze through, like a snake through a hole.\u201d Bilbo noticed Smaug\u2019s vulnerable spot when the dragon was flattered into revealing his diamond waistcoat. A thrush overheard Bilbo telling the dwarves and relayed the information to Bard of Esgaroth, who shot Smaug with an arrow. Like Glaurung overlooking humans, Smaug erred in overlooking hobbits and focusing on his dwarf enemies.<\/p>\n
Smaug\u2019s descriptors, while impressive, are not as terrifying as First Age dragon Glaurung\u2019s. He is known as \u201cSmaug the tremendous,\u201d \u201cSmaug the mighty,\u201d and Smaug \u201cthe unassessably wealthy.\u201d Smaug is also, we might say, better socialized. It\u2019s almost impossible to imagine a dragon like Glaurung in conversation with Bilbo in \u201cRiddles in the Dark.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of Anne\u2019s talk, fans discussed who might voice Smaug in any forthcoming production of \u201cThe Hobbit.\u201d Among the suggestions were James Earl Jones, Sean Connery, John Rhys-Davies, and Jeremy Irons.<\/p>\n