A.
There are dragons and then there are dragons. What
are the various types and do they arise in any order? The first reference
to various types comes in Book of Lost Tales II = History of Middle-earth, II,
p. 96:
"Many are the dragons that Melko has loosed upon the world and some are more
mighty than others. Now the least mighty -- yet were they very great
beside the Men of those days -- are cold as is the nature of snakes and
serpents, and of them a many having wings go with the uttermost noise and
speed; but the mightier are hot and very heavy and slow-going, and some belch
flame and fire flickereth beneath their scales, and the lust and greed and
cunning evil of these is the greatest of all creatures’."
Tolkien then goes on to say that the dragon Glaurung, whom Túrin is about to
meet, belonged to this last category. So in this early stage of Tolkien’s
mythology there existed all together: cold-blooded dragons (many with wings,
but some without) and larger, warm-blooded dragons (some of whom belched fire,
but others of whom did not -- none of this sort had wings).
B.
In the later stages of his mythology the various "species"
of dragon seem to arise in stages. First, starting with the second
version of the 2nd Silmarillion (Quenta 2, §18 = The Shaping of Middle-earth =
HoME, IV, p. 160), it becomes a fixed feature in the "evolution" of dragons
that winged dragons appeared first during the War of Wrath in a last, desperate
sally of Morgoth just before the Valar took Angband:
"...[Morgoth] loosed his last assault, and that was the winged dragons."
From n. 4: "Added here: ‘for as yet had none of these creatures of his cruel
thought assailed th air.’"
This stays constant through all the later versions of the Silmarillion.
The emergence of Glaurung marks another important stage in
the "evolution" of dragons. In BoLT II, as we have seen, Glaurung is
simply one of one type of several types of dragons. From the 1st
Silmarillion on Glaurung’s entrance onto the scene represents the first
emergence of a new and unforeseen evil:
"Morgoth had suddenly loosed a great army on them, and with them one of the
first and mightiest of those dragons that bred in his deep
places..." According to n. 2, the words "one of" were upon revision
struck.
The dragon is Glaurung (called Glómund here). Also, here is another
reference to dragons’ breeding which add to the second instalment of this
series of posts. From now on Glaurung is the first of his
"species." From the Quenta, §11 = SoME = HoME, IV, p. 118:
"There came the first of all the dragons, the eldest of all the Worms of
Greed. Glómund was his name..."
In the Later Annals of Beleriand, 155 [260] = The Lost Road and other Writings
= HoME, V, p. 143, a new detail emerges concerning Glaurung’s first appearance:
"Here Glómund the first of dragons came forth from Angband’s gate by night; and
he was yet young and but half grown...Glómund could not withstand [the Elves’]
darts being not yet come to his full armoury." Cf. the 3rd
Silmarillion = Quenta Silmarillion, §104 = LRoW = HoME, V, p. 280.
A further development takes place in War of the Jewels, p. 46:
"Here Glaurung, the first of the *Urolóki*, the fire-drakes of the North, came
forth from Angband’s gate by night. He was yet young and scarce
half-grown (for long and slow is the life of those worms)..." Cf. the
1977 Silmarillion, p. 137.
Now the specific thing about Glaurung is that he is the first of the
"fire-drakes," the first of the fire-breathing dragons.
C.
So to take stock briefly: Two stages in the "evolution" of
dragons delineate themselves clearly as Tolkien’s mythology develops:
First, Glaurung is the first "fire-drake." Second, just before Angband
fell, another model of dragon emerged: winged fire-drakes such as Anacalagon
the Black. (That Anacalagon breathed fire emerges from Gandalf’s words in
FotR, "The Shadow of the Past": "There is not now any dragon left on earth in
which the old fire is hot enough [i.e. to melt a Ring of Power]; nor was there
ever any dragon, not even Ancalagon the Black, who could have harmed the One
Ring..." Smaug clearly also belongs to this category.) Furthermore,
I deduce from the emphasis laid on Glaurung’s being the first "fire-drake" that
other sorts of drakes (who didn’t breathe fire) already bestrode the
earth. His belching forth of fire made Glaurung so terrifying initially;
though we later see that his "cunning evil" really was "the greatest of all
creatures’," to recall to mind the passage from BoLT II with which we started
off.
D.
If Glaurung was the first *fire-breathing* dragon,
obviously non-fire-breathing dragons preceded him. In LotrR, Appendix A
III, we read of a "cold-drake" that slew Dain I during the Third Age. The
Reverend, in one of his dragonish posts below, suggested this was some
left-over creature from the First Age, a type of dragon which didn’t breathe
fire. I concur. I further submit that "cold-drakes" existed before
"fire-drakes."
Nonetheless, it is difficult to find references to
"cold-drakes" in the various Silmarillions. From WJ = HoME XI, p. 74:
"Angband was emptied. There came wolves and wolfriders, and there came
Balrogs a thousand, and there came worms and drakes, and there came Glaurung,
Father of Dragons." "Worms" and "drakes" seem to be different "species"
in this reference; in fact, "dragons" could here represent a separate "species"
from both worms and drakes altogether. At any rate, we have at least one
"species" of reptilian monster additional to the "species" of fire-breathing
dragon; and possibly two. "Cold-drakes" would fit in nicely.
E.
To conclude: we can make out three distinct "species" of
dragon in the developed stage of the mythology. In chronological order:
cold-drakes (non-winged, non-fire-breathing dragons); fire-drakes (non-winged,
fire-breathing dragons); and winged fire-drakes. The progression from bad
to worse to worst seems standard in Tolkien’s corpus. Trolls cannot
withstand sunlight, but Sauron eventually develops the Olog-hai which
can. Orcs too shun the bright light of day, but Saruman develops the
Uruk-hai who don’t mind it. This topos of villains’ bio-engineering
recurs then several times in Tolkien.
Appendix: the Were-Worms in the Last Desert.
Heaven knows what these really are, but in the light of
the fore-going I’d like to suggest that they too represent some type of dragon
(probably not of the most fearsome variety, i.e. the winged, fire-breathing
ones) left over from the First Age. In the Quenta Silmarillion, §16 =
SoME = HoME IV, p. 144, Tolkien writes à propos of the Fall of Gondolin:
"[Morgoth] loosed upon Gondolin his Orcs and his Balrogs and his serpents; and
of these, dragons of many and dire shapes new devised for the taking of the
city." The Were-worms could have been one of these newly devised types of
dragon. Alternately, they could, I suppose, be cold-drakes.
(To be
continued.)
__________________________________
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
