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Lord of the Rings: What Happened to the Dragons of Middle Earth? Explained
Dragons are an integral yet underseen part of the Lord of the Rings series. There are mentions of these mythical creatures throughout the series, as well as an important appearance in The Hobbit.
Dragons are one of the most popular mythical creatures who have had an enduring relevance throughout the years. The fantasy genre especially is eternally linked with dragons so much so that they are ever-present on our screens these days. Whether it's the Harry Potter series or Game Of Thrones and House Of The Dragons. So, it’s without a surprise that the Godfather of fantasy films, Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings series also has a fascinating history of dragons. The Hobbit series, which is a prequel to the original Middle Earth series also heavily features a dragon as a primary character.
For most of the time in Lord Of The Rings series, the dragons are kept offscreen. They are mentioned here and there but their presence doesn’t actively inform the narrative of those stories. This is despite the presence of various different mythical creatures, like Elves, Wargs and Oliphaunts.
The first dragon in the world of Middle Earth appears to be Glaurung, also called the father of the dragons. The dragon had emerged from Dark Lord Morgoth’s stronghold and eventually became an important part of Morgoth’s armies as well.
Despite being a fearsome creature, Glaurung was not the kind of dragon that we usually see in fantasy fiction, as he was not a winged dragon. The first winged dragons appeared during the War of Wrath. Many winged dragons accompanied Dark Lord Morgoth in this battle and were led by the fearsome Ancalagon the Black. Though, he is killed in the battle, many of his fellow dragons are also defeated or forced to flee. It's to be noted that the War of Wrath was also the battle where Dark Lord Morgoth was eventually defeated.
After the defeat of Dark Lord Morgoth, the second age of Middle Earth ushered in. Here, mankind had to face the consequences of Morgoth’s various creations, such as demons, dragons, orcs and some other beasts, which were made by dark rituals. It is said that somewhere around the 3,500-year-long second age, dragons appeared to have migrated to the barren lands of Middle-Earth’s northern regions.
There are some mentions of dragons destroying the rings of power. So, one can assume that this was the task that dragons were upto during this long second-age. The dragons appear again towards the end of the Third Age. A dragon named Scatha was said to have been defeated by an ancient Rohirric King by the name of Fram. Around two centuries after their re-appearance a dragon named Smaug flies to the lonely mountain until he is killed at the hands of Bard the Bowman in The Hobbit.
The dragons are still supposed to be there in The Lord Of The Rings timeline as Gandalf mentioned them during the Fellowship Of The Ring book, it's just that they are not powerful enough to melt the rings of power as their ancestors were.
ALSO READ: Lord Of The Rings War Of The Rohirrim Anime Trailer Breakdown: From A To B, Everything You Missed
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