Summary
Among all the wondrous and fantastical creatures that live in J.R.R. Tolkien’sThe Lord of the Ringsseries, perhaps some of the most terrifying are the massive, fire-breathing tyrants who have terrorized the world for ages, but just how many dragons are there in Middle-Earth and which ones are the largest?
In The Lord of the Rings, dragons are gargantuan, intelligent, and ancient creatures,created by Morgoth in the First Agein an attempt to overwhelm the forces of mortal races and claim Arda for their own.
Quick Note About Dragons…
There were many dragons in Middle-Earth at one time, but over the ages and as wars were waged and ravaged the land, their numbers dwindled. We’re only going to cover the cannon dragons from The Lord of the Rings and related books. There were several dragons that pop up in games like The Lord of the Rings Online and the tabletop role-playing game Middle-earth Role Playing. While very cool, we’re going to leave them out for now.
7Lhamthanc
A Speculative Serpent
Little is known about Lhamthanc, so little in fact, that it remains unknown if they are even a dragon by The Lord of the Rings standards. In The Lost Road and Other Writings, the fifth volume of The History of Middle-earth, published posthumously by his son, Christopher Tolkien, Tolkien named Lhamthanc as a serpent, which is a common term to describe dragons in Middle-earth.
There is a high chance that Lhamthanc is what is called a Cold-drake, a descendant of dragons that had all the claws, fangs, and strength of their ancestors, but lacked the ability to breathe fire. More importantly, they were also much smaller than the dragons of old. Unfortunately, Lhamthanc is only mentioned by name in The Etymologies chapter of the book, which was a collection of words and roots from the various Elvish languages. As it turns out, Lhamthanc is a Noldorin name meaning ‘forked tongue’, giving a tiny bit more credence to the thought that they were a true dragon.
If Lhamthanc is a real dragon and a Cold-drake, they will be among the smallest named dragons named in Middle-earth.
6Gostir
Cold-Drakes Making A Comeback
Another speculative Dragon, Gostir also appears in The Lost Road and Other Writings as a name among many other terms, phrases, and names that populate the chapter. The one key distinction to keep in mind with Gostir that separates it from Lhamthanc, is that it is confirmed to have a dragon-name, one that came from the original name, Gorsthir.
Their name means “dread-glance”, which is a great name for a species that can manipulate people and cast spells with a look. While non-canon, and we did say we weren’t going to include dragons from non-canon sources, there is some extra information about Gostir from the Middle-earth Role Playing game.
Gostir is confirmed to be a white Cold-drake with red eyes who lives in the lands north of Rhun, far to the east of Mordor. In the Creatures of Middle-earth supplemental book, Gostir was said to be the older brother of Lhamthanc, which is just vague enough to say they’re likely bigger than Lhamthanc.
5Scatha
A Dragon Fit For Man
One of the more curious dragons from The Lord of the Rings’ Legendarium, Scatha is known as the greatest of the Long-worms, a unique distinction of dragons that resided in the Grey Mountains towards the northern lands of Middle-earth.
Scatha is a dragon but from all accounts a relatively small one, perhaps just barely larger than the Cold-drakes. They appear to have been born sometime in the late Second Age, but did nothing of note until the Third Age. We know that Scatha is a smaller dragon since he was slain by Fram, son of Frumgar, a lord of Eotheod around the year 2,000 of the third age, a little more than a thousand years before Frodo took the One Ring to Mordor.
4Fire-Drake Of Gondolin
The Mystery Of The Dragon
One of the fun things about The Lord of the Rings is how much information is left to speculation. The Fire-Drake of Gondolin has exceptionally little information about them directly, including even a specific name past a title that gives us a hint at their size. Also known as the Beast of Gondolin, this dragon was key to the fall of the hidden elven city under the orders of Morgoth.
Here’s the thing about dragons from the First and Second Ages, they, on average, were said to be much larger than those found in later ages. We’ll see this later with some of the later dragons, like Galurung and Ancalagon, but since theFire-Drake of Gondolin comes from the First Age, we can assume that this beast is quite large.
There’s one other note that helps us make this conclusion, in the battle of Gondolin, the Fire-Drake carried multiple Balrogs on its back as it flew over the walls of the city. Balrogs in the books are described as being around 14 to 18 feet tall, not nearly as imposing as they are depicted in Peter Jackson’s films.
3Smaug
The Golden, The Impenetrable, The Terrible, The Dread
The dragon most Lord of the Rings fans will be familiar with, Smaug was a fire-drake that lived in the Third Age, and was seen by many as the last great dragon of Middle-earth. After commandeering the massive stores of gold that the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain gather under the reign of King Thror, Smaug would keep the gold under his watch for 171 years, until Bilbo, Thorin, and the dwarven company would dethrone the dragon.
Tolkien never explicitly stated how large Smaug is, and official illustrations depict Smaug in wildly different sizes depending on the artist. That said, Smaug was described as being twice as big as a Boeing 747 airplane, putting his full size around 130 to 152 meters in length which is a staggering size.
In Tolkien’s own depictions, Smaug is shown alongside a pile of gold, with swords and shields among them, making Smaug around the size of two city buses, which is significantly smaller than his film depiction.
2Glaurung
The Father Of Dragons
One of the first dragons to walk upon Middle-earth, Glaurung was a massive beast who was created by Morgoth to be a new weapon against the Noldor elves in Beleriand. Being one of the earliest dragons, Glaurung lacked the distinctive wings that other dragons were known for.
Being land-based did not stop Glaurung from devastating the forces of elves, men, and dwarves. While he was not fully grown when Glaurung first appeared when he made his glorious appearance at the Battle of Unnumbered Tears more than 200 years later, he would devastate the battlefield with an army of smaller dragons. While there are no confirmed numbers to compare Glaurung’s size to, given that he was capable of wiping out legions of experienced fighters on his own, he is a massive dragon.
1Ancalagon The Black
The World Shakes With Each Footstep
The greatest of all dragons, Ancalagon the Black is an utterly massive dragon born during the First Age, was the largest dragon that ever lived.During the War of Wrath, just before Morgoth’s defeat, the fallen Valar let loose Ancalagon on the world. Even the gods could not withstand the dragon’s might, and Ancalagon was said to have been enveloped by a tempest of fire and lightning.
To put in scale how large Ancalagon is, when he died, his body fell on a series of three volcanoes called Thangorodrim, reducing them to rubble under his weight. The exact side of the mountain range is unknown, but they were said to be the biggest mountains in Middle-earth, and Ancalagon crushed them, or at least destroyed them, when he fell upon them. To give some context, the tallest mountain on earth is Mount Everest, standing at 29,032 feet. If we assume Thangorodrim is around the same height, Ancalagon destroyed three Mount Everests when he fell.
