Smaug

**Smaug** was one of the main antagonists of *The Hobbit*

He was the last great fire-Drake of Middle Earth from the north. Hatched sometime in the middle Third Age in the Withered Heath, Smaug was a flying, fire-breathing dragon.

Being capable of speech and communication, he learned of the great treasure hoard of Thror and flew to Erebor in order to take it by force.

## Character overview

Smaug was a natural enemy of the Dwarves after he stole the Lonely Mountain from the then king, Thror. For years he slept until the hobbit Bilbo Baggins and his group of thirteen Dwarves came to take back the Mountain. Smaug deduced that they were from Lake-town and planned to destroy the city. However, he was later killed by Bard the Bowman through the use of a black arrow, also thanks to Bain a son of Bard's, assistance.

## Background

Smaug burnt the nearby city of Dale, although its lord, Girion, managed to loosen one of the dragon's scales with a Black Arrow. He defeated the Erebor army and went to the treasure room, reveling in the piles of gold. When Thror went down there (hoping to cower inside with the Arkenstone) he encountered Smaug, losing the Arkenstone to him, and was only saved by the arrival of his grandson, Thorin.

For the next 110 years, the dragon continued to leave the mountain on occasion, gradually depopulating the area and turning the landscape, including the Long Valley, into the barren Desolation of Smaug. Afterwards, he settled in the hoard for sixty years, not seen by anyone in Middle Earth, leading some to suspect that he died.

Smaug's presence worried Gandalf, who - fearing rising darkness in Middle Earth - was afraid that "darker minds" could recruit Smaug to their cause or at least claim the mountain for their own gain. He reasoned this before Thorin, convincing him to undertake a quest to reclaim Erebor from the dragon.

Smaug was, however, alive. Having already entered an alliance with the Necromancer and been informed of Thorin's approach, he was waiting for them.

## The Hobbit (film series)

### The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

As Smaug sleeps, he sound of the knocking of a thrush, echoing through the halls. It was enough to alert him that the Dwarves were coming home.

### The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Smaug awoke when Bilbo, looking through the hoard, unraveled him from under the coins. While the Hobbit used the Ring, Smaug could still smell and hear him, feeling his presence. He could also sense the Ring as "something made of gold but far more precious." This caused Bilbo to remove the Ring (as he was menaced by the Eye of Sauron) and his conversation with Smaug continued with him fully visible to the drake.

Bilbo was nevertheless able to amuse and flatter Smaug to the point that the dragon was not willing to burn or devour him instantly. Smaug, for his part, was trying to extract information from the Hobbit. Having never met a Hobbit before, he tried to learn his nature, with Bilbo giving elusive answers, naming himself "luck-wearer", "riddle maker" and "barrel rider." This last title made Smaug mistake Bilbo for a man of Laketown, inferring that there's some "sordid scheme between these filthy Dwarves and those miserable tub-trading Lakemen."

Smaug taunted him, knowing about his "Dwarf friends" and about "Oakenshield" who he called a filthy Dwarvish usurper. He tried to sew doubts in Bilbo's mind about the loyalty of his comrades, telling him that "Oakenshield has weighed the value of your life and found it worth nothing". However, Bilbo refused to believe Smaug's word. However, ironically, that was partially true as Thorin was deliberating whether or not to help Bilbo.

When he finally gathered Bilbo's intent to take the Arkenstone, he warned him that it will corrupt Thorin. He then tried to eat Bilbo, but the Hobbit used the Ring to disappear, took the stone and fled. On his way out, he was detained by Thorin just long enough for Smaug to find them again, and they had to flee away from the passageway to the Hidden Door and into Erebor itself.

At one point, Smaug passed right over the company, unable to hear them for the sound of howling winds in the wide expanses of the realm. When the Dwarves uncovered the remains of a group of refugees which were left behind and burnt by the dragon, they decided to try and slay him themselves. They split up and, taunting him, lured him to the forges. To get the foundries hot again, Thorin taunted Smaug into spitting fire, turning it against him.

When Thorin finally completed his plan and erected a golden statue of Thror, Smaug was mesmerized to the sight, not noticing the gold was still molten as it covered him. He was able however to burst out of the golden pool. Wanting to show Thorin what revenge really is, he decided to go and burn Laketown.

### The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

As Smaug torched Laketown, the Dwarves looked hopelessly, feeling guilty. The dragon also noticed an archer shooting arrows at him from the bell-tower. He confronted him and his son, taunting him as he does, before lunging at him. The man, however, was in possession of the last Black Arrow and shot it right into Smaug's missing scale, killing the dragon.

## The Lord of the Rings (film series)

### The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Smaug is mentioned as the dragon in The Fellowship of the Ring. His likeness appears on the Map of the Lonely Mountain, and in a special firework which Gandalf crafted in honour of Bilbo's 111th birthday. Bilbo has a piece of one of Smaug's claws in his mother's hope-chest.

## Personality

Smaug is a flying, fire-breathing dragon, the last of the great fire drakes. He is capable of speech, and is in fact highly intelligent and manipulative. Unlike a similar conversation with Gollum, Smaug is capable of extracting pieces of information from Bilbo and to sew doubts in the Hobbit's mind about his long-standing companions.

Smaug is also paranoid and psychotic. He sits on his gold, waiting anxiously for the day someone will come to reclaim it. In spite of having no use for the gold, he "will not part with a single coin." He is vain and avaricious, talking about himself and praising his own size and power.

Smaug is an evil creature and, as such, is attached to the growing evil of Sauron. He is revealed to be in league with him, learning of the Dwarves' approach and of Thorin's new epithet "Oakenshield." Gandalf deduced it was Sauron's intention to use Smaug in the War of the Ring, and to use Erebor to help secure control of the lands of Angmar in the North. Smaug is also capable of sensing the Ring's presence.