- Beowolf: The Monsters and the Critics, pg. 17
This description of
Beowolf’s dragon seemed to me to reflect what Tolkien believes is the right
kind of dragon in a story by pointing out the less effective use of a dragon in
Beowolf. He says that Beowolf’s dragon is more draconitas than actual draco,
being a personification of the evil side of heroic life and the evil aspect of
all life (the “undiscriminating cruelty of fortune…”). This made me think of
how his thoughts on Beowolf’s dragon must have influenced the way he wrote
Smaug in The Hobbit. In his story, Smaug is a wicked and cruel, but
intelligent creature with the characteristics that Tolkien stated the Beowolf
dragon could have had more of: “bestiality of life and thought of his own.” It seems to me that
though Smaug is most definitely a good example of a dragon as a malicious
creature, but Tolkien does create a character in his story that represents the evil side of heroic life-Smaug’s hoarding of the treasure in the Lonely
Mountain is not unlike Thorin’s later attitude towards the treasure and the
Arkenstone after the desolation of the dragon. Smaug is indeed representative
of the power of fortune and riches that attract both evil forces (like the
goblins) and “good” or not inherently evil ones (like the wood-elves and the
men of Lake-town). I think Tolkien finds a good balance of symbolism and fairy-tale monster in his creation of
Smaug.
Addition to free-write:
I was initially confused by Tolkien referring to dragons as “worms” but after
the art report on “Glorund Sets Forth”, it makes more sense as Tolkien had more non-traditional beliefs/depictions of dragons' physical appearance, such as Glorund.
This description of dragons by Tolkien as worms has always thrown me as I would, personally, compare them more to a reptile than a worm. How I’ve come to terms with this way of describing dragons is the worm is a characterization of the essence of the dragons, as even with Glorund, the physical aspect of worm doesn’t come across to me. Dragons, in the context of being something evil and the fact they like to live in deep dark places, are very “wormy.”
ReplyDeleteI agree with both your and Tolkien’s assessment that Beowulf’s dragon is very flat, whereas when Tolkien created Smaug, he made a very complex creature that is extremely individual, as when dragons are generally thought of, it’s in a very categorical way. Smaug, while falling into the category is also unique in it, as we get a full picture and feel for him.