Smaug. When describing Smaug, the dragon, the author uses both similes and metaphors. The following metaphor directly compares Smaug to a worm without using 'like' or 'as' to connect them. 'There was a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm called Smaug.
He represents the wrongful impulse to hoard, to accumulate beyond what one can use and to refuse to share with others. In revenge for the theft of the Arkenstone, he destroys the town of Lake-town (Esgaroth).
According to Tolkien, (who was born in the Free State where these animals occur) the name Smaug is "the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb smeugan, meaning "to squeeze through a hole", making it a doubly appropriate name for dragon-like lizards that live in burrows or rock cracks.
He wants the treasure so he can have the treasure. That is his sole reason for amassing a hoard. Smaug, the dragon in J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, represents greed in several ways. Firstly, he hoards a vast treasure trove, which he obsessively guards and refuses to share.
Greed is a common trait that dragons can symbolize and it is present in many of our characters. For example, Smaug is a very selfish creature whose only purpose is to guard the stolen mound of treasure from thieves; even though he truly has no use for it.
The Life of Smaug & the Dragons of the North | Tolkien Explained
Does Smaug represent the devil?
In crafting the dialogue and mannerisms of Smaug, J.R.R. Tolkien rendered a malignant character who showcases a number of parallels with that ancient serpent, the tempter who came to seduce Eve and Adam in Eden, the devil.
"I kill where I wish and none dare resist. I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong, strong strong."
Smaug is described as a red-golden dragon, with bat-like wings and a huge tail. His jaws and nostrils were always emitting smoke, but the fires inside him burned low when he was at rest. His red-golden scales were tough enough to deflect most blades, but these only covered his upper hide.
The Hobbit dragon is the most famous of Tolkien's dragons. The name Smaug, is derived from a Germanic word that means "to squeeze through a hole." He is a large red dragon, and the considered the last 'great' dragon of the Third Age. He is evil and very strong, as evidenced by his ability to conquer two cities.
Deriving from the same Old English and Germanic roots as smial and Smeagol, the name Smaug is "the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb Smugan, to squeeze through a hole". It has been suggested that Tolkien likely thought of Old English smeag, a word used to describe a "worm".
Telling Smaug ANYTHING close to the truth is dangerous. He might hate Hobbits, or use that knowledge to follow him back home and destroy him. Bilbo revealing it to Gollum nearly caused the destruction of everything.
Smaug (/smaʊɡ/) is a dragon and the main antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit, his treasure and the mountain he lives in being the goal of the quest.
So, Smaug, like all the other dragons of Middle-earth, may very well crave gold because their maker did as well. KEEP READING: Lord of the Rings: Could Smaug Have Destroyed the One Ring With His Fire?
While Tolkien drew heavily upon Fafnir and Beowulf's Bane as sources for Smaug, he also drew upon the dragons he had created in previous years as Page 16 Pellerin 13 sources of inspirations.
He has always struggled with pride and arrogance, but greed will be his downfall. Greed is reflected also in the dragon Smaug, who has no use for treasure but still hordes it and seeks vengeance on any who try and remove him from his mountain throne of gold.
Undeniably, Smaug is the Greatest Dragon left in Middle Earth during the Third Age. Yet, he is not the strongest in its history. That title falls to Ancalagon the Black, the largest dragon ever to have existed in Middle-earth.
To that end, The Hobbit book stated that Smaug was a young dragon when he attacked Erebor. So, even though the "Smaug was a human" theory holds some water, all indication was that Smaug was born a dragon.
Smaug had no problem eating Dwarf, and on the day he attacked the great Dwarven kingdom, he likely had enough bodies to last him a long while. But over the decades, the bodies would've decomposed, leaving only whatever meals the Dwarves left behind.
Smaug, left those who fled Erebor, because the treasure was his goal, from the beginning. After these events, we understand that Smaug is, at least, Neutral Evil. And this is where, the Films and Book choose a different path. In the Book, Smaug desires only the treasure of Erebor.
Even Smaug's weakness is not a character defect, but rather is a single gap in his armor-like scales, a contrast to Thorin's weakness, which is his greed.
Although Smaug was the greatest of the Dragons of his day, he seems not to have been the last of his kind as Gandalf told Frodo Baggins that "there is not now any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough [to melt the Rings of Power]", indicating the presence of other, lesser dragons.
Bilbo regrets giving himself the nickname "Barrel-Rider." The nickname gives Smaug a clue that Bilbo and company had help from the people of Lake Town, and Smaug flies off that way at the end of the chapter.
"My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail is a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!" ― Smaug to Bilbo Baggins -The Hobbit, "Inside Information.
