The Influence of Mythical Dragons and Naming of Tolkien’s Smaug Professor J.R.R. Tolkien’s view of dragons as a mysterious antagonist in stories and legends and he thought, “It simply isn’t an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons.” In the novel The Hobbit, written by J.R.R. Tolkien, Smaug the dragon is a significant and important character throughout the entire book. Since Tolkien thought adventure had to consist of an evil, and perilous dragon, he created a dragon with a cunning and dangerous personality that he soon named Smaug. Smaug’s personality and the plot of the story wasn’t original, however. Tolkien was highly influenced by legends like Beowulf’s dragon and Fafnir and based Smaug and his name off of them. Tolkien’s…show more content… Like Beowulf’s dragon, Smaug will guard his treasure until he dies in his lair and will never let anyone steal his gold. Also, the tale of Beowulf’s dragon states that, “When a thief steals a golden cup from its lair, the dragon rampages through the countryside, burning everything it sees” (McCall and Connolly 9). Smaug also sees that Bilbo stole the cup and dwarves want his gold he tells them with rage, “They shall see me and remember who is the real King under the Mountain!’ He rose in fire and went away south towards the Running River” (Tolkien 223). Not so coincidentally, both dragons guard piles of treasure and when a thief steals a their gold, the dragon destroys everything. Another similarity between the two dragons is that Beowulf’s dragon, “breathes fire that light up the sky, terrifying villages and burning every home” (McCall and Connolly 9). In The Hobbit, Smaug is a fire breathing dragon and destroys Laketown by burning down the entire place, due to the fact that the dwarves received help from the town. Smaug’s characteristics come from Beowulf’s dragon and the plot is based on the…show more content… Fafnir was one of a dwarf king’s three ogre sons, but becomes greedy of his father’s gold and “covets his father’s treasure. He murders his father and turns himself into a fearsome, wicked dragon who guards all the gold” (McCall and Connolly 35). Greed has caused Smaug to destroy the city of Dale. In Middle Earth, “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” (Tolkien 11 [online version]). Fafnir is a greedy and selfish dragon and, “greed runs in Fafnir’s family” (McCall and Connolly 35). Thorin is a greedy dwarf, but his grandfather, Thor, was extremely greedy and his “grandfather's halls became full of armour and jewels and carvings and cups, and the toy-market of Dale was the wonder of the North” (Tolkien 11 [online version]). Therefore, the greed of Fafnir’s family is similar to the greed of Thorin’s. Many elements of Fafnir the dragon were used in Tolkien’s Smaug, and causes the dragons to have similar
