Month / December 2014
Since that dragon chart has quickly become my most popular post I should probably explain where I got the sizes from.
UPDATE: I edited the chart to more accurately reflect descriptions based on all the input I have had. The updated chart can be found here
Ancalagon the Black
“Before the rising of the sun Eärendil slew Ancalagon the Black, the mightiest of the dragon-host, and cast him from the sky; and he fell upon the towers of Thangorodrim, and they were broken in his ruin.”
Now in the Atlas of Middle Earth apparently there is a drawing by tolkien that would indicate that Thangorodrim was about 35,000 ft high. For comparison that is a good bit taller than Mt. Everest which is29,029 feet. I cannot confirm this right now as my copy of the Atlas is on loan to a friend but that seems reasonable to me.
Anyhow, that means that Ancalagon the Black must have been enormous to crush them under his bulk.
My guess at the size of some of the other Winged Dragons in the War of Wrath
“out of the pits of Angband there issued the winged dragons, that had not before been seen; and so sudden and ruinous was the onset of that dreadful fleet that the host of the Valar was driven back, for the coming of the dragons was with great thunder, and lightning, and a tempest of fire.”
While obviously none of these other dragons were as big as Ancalagon, I imagine that at least some of them were pretty huge by this description.
Glaurung
“In the front of that fire came Glaurung the golden, father of dragons, in his full might; and in his train were Balrogs, and behind them came the black armies of the Orcs in multitudes such as the Noldor had never before seen or imagined. And they assaulted the fortresses of the Noldor, and broke the leaguer about Angband, and slew wherever they found them the Noldor and their allies.”
Now Glaurung is hard to place size-wise as Tolkien never really says but as Father of Dragons he must have been quite large and so Tolkien seems to describe him. He also looks quite large in Tolkien’s drawing but this is one that could definitely be argued.
Drake of Gondolin
“but even as Tuor comes nigh driving the Orcs, one of those brazen snakes heaves against the western wall and a great mass of it shakes and falls, and behind comes a creature of fire and Balrogs upon it. Flames gust from the jaws of that worm and folk wither before it,”
So in Tolkien’s early writings on the Fall of Gondolin found in HoME there are a good number of dragons at the Fall of Gondolin and they knock down the walls and stuff. Again, pretty big.
Scatha
Scatha the Worm was a mighty Long-worm of the Grey Mountains and one of the greatest Dragons to infest that range of the north. He was slain by Fram. Again, not much info so size reflects my best guess.
Smaug
My assessment of Smaug’s size was based largely off Tolkien’s drawings some of which are above.
So those are my sources, nice and simple. Again if you have anything more specific, send it my way.
Let me tell you, if you are ever with a person who has anxiety, and they ask you to order their food for them, or stand next to them when they buy something, or reassure them countless times exactly the time and place where you will be meeting them at, DO NOT ROLL YOUR EYES, DO NOT SIGH IN EXASPERATION, AND DO NOT TELL THEM TO STOP BEING SO SILLY. Sometimes its hard to do simple things like that, and when people help us out, it means the world to us.
Additionally, forcing someone with anxiety to do things on their own will NOT “teach them that it’s okay” or anything like that. What it will teach them is that on top of already being scared, the people that they trust will reject and abandon them if they ask for help.
Slash Pairings Never Die
As far as I’m concerned, the only thing that matters is what’s in the story, and where we can take that story if we want to (in sum: everywhere).
Creator intentions, or commentary about creator intentions, or creator’s fakeout commentary about their intentions, while interesting, are not that important, in the end. The story is the story, and it is what it is. It’s out there to be interpreted and reinterpreted as we see fit. Creator intentions are all well and good, but if they aren’t watertight in the story (which is always), if the opposite argument can be made using evidence from the narrative (certainly always), we’re cooking with gas.
Slash fandoms have existed for a long time in spite of the original intentions of creators. Many creators have been actively and openly hostile to slash fandoms. There has been eyerolling, dismissive commentary, explicit prohibitions, and lawsuits. But slash fandoms have flourished anyway.
As far as I can tell, nothing can kill a slash pairing. Creators can marry characters off, kill them, make them as butch and heterosexual as they possibly can, and slash fandoms will keep on thriving. Maybe it’s because we like the challenge. Maybe it just adds angsty fuel to the fire, and you know where all that angst leads.
There is always an explanation to be made, a narrative or character loophole to exploit, a perfectly reasonable way to continue doing as we do. Human beings are too complicated to restrict that way, and I mean both fictional people and their fans. We aren’t going to be boxed in by canon, because narrative is naturally non-restrictive. No matter what the creator’s intentions are, narrative will set us free. Their stories will just give us more loopholes and ideas, always. They will never shut that door.
Long live slash fandom!
“We aren’t going to be boxed in by canon, because narrative is naturally non-restrictive. No matter what the creator’s intentions are, narrative will set us free.”
I’m so happy for Bagginshield fans right now. Like, it’s not so much my thing, but dang you guys got an awesome holiday present, and I’m just so, so happy for you!
So I made a little size chart of Dragons of Middle-Earth
I think these are right but if anyone has quotes or anything to indicate something different, send them my way and I’ll fix it.
I love this because you realize that all the ego stroking in The Hobbit is Smaug trying to cover up that he’s a tiny, tiny dragon. Smaug the magnificent? impenetrable? Chiefest and greatest of calamities? More like Smaug the small and annoying.
Holy mother of god…how did Ancalagon the Black not destroy ALL of Middle Earth???
“An inspiration to others” reminds me of my high school art teacher once saying that I was like the silent leader/role model for the rest of the class. And I was just sitting there like, uh, I’m the weirdo loner that no one wants to talk to.
a paper mache bucket ... tumblr mirror 